Not
everything is an improvement, but
Keith Wagstaff has a
Time article about the latest:
Roomba is great, I guess. I mean, it can vacuum your floor while you sit on the couch watching Perfect Strangers. But can it talk to you?
Cocorobo can. It’s the new robot from Sharp that will finally allow you to become friends with a household appliance. Feeling bored? Ask Cocorobo how it’s doing and it will respond:“So good.”
According to the Associated Press, it can speak 36 phrases in Japanese, Chinese, English, and Kansai, a “dialect of southwestern Japan widely viewed as more comical and witty than standard Japanese.” A wise-cracking family robot? Yes please!
Sadly it doesn’t actually take orders through spoken commands, so you’ll just have to make due with casual chit-chat as it moves around your living room vacuuming and purifying the air. Perhaps its coolest feature is its camera, which provides a feed to your smartphone— perfect for finding things under furniture, checking in on your home while you’re out. and spying on family members.
If you want one, it’s going to cost you 130,000 yen ($1,600) plus a plane ticket. It’s initially only being released in Japan and later will ship to China and other Asian countries.
Rico says lessee, it speaks Japanese, Chinese, English, and Kansai; wonder what market
they're going for?
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