The Yumel, Tomy's doll for the elderly
posted February 25th 2005 4:48PM
Since they're having trouble finding enough kids in Japan to sell their creepy lifelike robotic dolls to, toymakers
there have started going after another demo: the elderly. Tomy is coming out with the Yumel, a "healing partner" with a
vocabulary of 1,200 phrases that sells for 8,500 yen and is designed to keep you company. It'll greet you when you wake
up in the morning—it has six built-in sensors for keep tracking of its owner's sleeping patterns—but the downside is
that if you start raging all night or oversleeping or ignoring it or whatever the doll will ask you if you're pushing
yourself too hard. And if you treat it right? The Yumel will sing you songs and harrass you into buying it presents.
That's win/win people.
[Via Collision Detection]
My life would be "Oh so empty" without you, Engadget! Thank you!
one word.....creepy
did they make it scary looking on purpose? i mean... that thing would be freaky if it just sat there and did nothing. let alone freaking talking to me and keeping track of my sleeping patterns... yeah. no thanks. i'd feel more comfortable going into the streets and finding an actual hobo to share my bed with every night.
The thing would probably scare the shit out of me when I wake up and end out being hit out the window by a baseball bat.
I can probably imagine someone putting it right next to my head as well...
恐い。。。
What was the name of that movie? Oh yeah "Child's Play."
I think it's kind of neat. But why do they only come with light hair color? None seem to have dark hair. Japan against dark hair?
where can I buy one?