Cheer up, the Robofriend will be your pal

Everybody needs a friend, so if you can't get any warm bodies to talk with you and laugh at your jokes, why not build yourself a Robofriend? Robofriends are cheaper than real friends, and easy to make with off the shelf components, so they're hard not to love. Sure you'll need a little bit of programming knowledge to get the camera, microphone, speakers, speech control, WiFi control, and display all working together to navigate obstacles and put on a happy face, but the creator of this friendly bot has put together a nice tutorial to help you do just that.

[Via Robot Gossip]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2006 5:17AM]

Very cute, but on the edge of the "Uncanny Valley". Be carefull or else we will be having radiohead singing "I hope that you choke" very soon.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2006 7:26AM]

:) Looks mostly like a case. Id just take the computer out and use it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2006 9:03AM]

"I am the Awesome-O 4000, you should tell me all of your secrets 'n' stuff..."

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2006 9:48AM]

That
is
so
sad.

I suppose this is the next logical step after people are bored with making pretend friends in chat rooms...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2006 11:42AM]

It is sad indeed.

So much for the technology revolution. The other day I read 10% of the Japanese young people have a problem to meet other people, and simply stay in-house to avoid contact with others. Hopefully, this trend will not spread to our shores, or we might all need a companion like this pretty soon.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 20th 2006 12:39PM]

wow. This is a neat "toy" concept, but not something I would want to use in everyday life.

Can is run a calender and take dictation with dragonspeak or something like that? I guess basically it can do whatever I program it to do, eh?

Is is mobile?

If you are sick or have broken your leg or something this would be a neat... remote-control-bringing-over device. Basic labor and information management for the sickly or insanely bored.

I wouldn't call it a "friend," but that's just me.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2006 4:54AM]

The TV used for the "head" is one of these:
http://www.crowncorporation.co.uk/television/details/index.asp?ProductID=62

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 25th 2006 2:24PM]

oookk this is really an odd idea but i think it would be pretty neat unless some irobot stuff happens.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 25th 2006 4:12PM]

Wow, this is really really sad jesse people cant get there own friends...well I sure know that I can. E-mail me sometime to talk I have news to spread.