The cutest robo-smartphone ever made is hitting shelves in Japan next month - but is it cute enough to drop almost £1,300?
RoBoHoN (which translates roughly as “heart moving phone”) is an adorable tiny robot, which doubles up as a smartphone. Or is it a smartphone that doubles up as a robot?
Either way, the happy little bot is a surprisingly powerful piece of technology in its own right.
Created by Japanese electronics firm Sharp, RoBoHoN is a 20cm tall robot phone. It’s capable of walking around your home or office (but probably on a table rather than the floor) and acts as a small personal assistant. It’ll read out phone messages, announce phone calls and even shout at you when it’s time to wake up.
But as well as being a supercharged, super-cute version of Siri, the bot is also equipped with facial recognition technology that allows it to interact with its owner on a more personal level, greeting them by name as they enter the room.
The projector buried in its head also allows it to beam images on to flat surfaces: perfect for sharing photos, or (apparently) beaming a picture of some food on to a plate so you can copy the layout of the dish.
Of course, the downside to all this is that if you want to use your adorable phonebot as an actual phone, you’ll have to hold what looks like a child’s toy to your ear, bum-side first.
Oh yes, there’s another downside too: the price. RoBoHoN costs ¥198,000 (£1,282), and there’s a recurring service fee to pay on top of that. But I’ve had friendships far more expensive – and less fulfilling – than the one RoBoHoN offers, and not one of them has been with someone with a projector installed in their forehead.
