In an attempt apparently aimed at making lonely people stay happier, Toyota Motor Corp on Monday unveiled a doe-eyed palm-sized robot, named Kirobo Mini, which can double as a baby companion for those left wanting.
Tiny ‘Kirobo Mini’ is designed as a synthetic baby companion in Japan, where falling birth rates have left many women childless.
Kirobo is developed with the aim to provide a friend. Kirobo not only looks like a baby but also blinks its eyes and speaks with a baby-like high-pitched voice.
The little robot comes with a "cradle" that doubles as its baby seat designed to fit in car cup holders.
It also includes a camera, microphone and a Bluetooth connection that it uses to connect with the smartphone that makes it work, alongside a small subscription fee.
"He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated baby, which hasn't fully developed the skills to balance itself," said Fuminori Kataoka, Kirobo Mini's chief design engineer. "This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connection."
Next year, Toyota plans to sell Kirobo Mini for 39,800 yen (Rs 25940.79) in Japan.
The Kirobo Mini joins a growing market for companion robots. Such as the upcoming Jibo, designed by robotics experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that resembles a swiveling lamp, and Paro, a robot baby seal marketed by Japanese company Intelligent System Co Ltd as a therapeutic machine to soothe elderly dementia sufferers.
According to government statistics, births in Japan have halved to around a million a year in the past half century. One in 10 women never marry there.
Already, Japan is a leading user of industrial robots. It has the second-biggest concentration after South Korea with 314 machines per 100,000 employees, according to the International Federation of Robots.
Toyota, which is investing heavily to develop artificial intelligence for self-driving cars, sees Kirobo Mini as a stepping stone to more advanced robots that will be able to recognize and react to human emotions, Kataoka further added.
