Quasi robot melts hearts at Toy Fair, Interbots promises toy version soon

You'd have to be heartless to walk by Interbots' Quasi and not crack a smile. Q, as we like to call him, isn't an autonomous bot, but instead everything from his facial expressions to his speech are controlled wirelessly via a tablet PC. As you can see in the video after the break, his master can change his eye color and arm / hand movements with just a touch of the stylus. So, why did Quasi, who was born at Carnegie Mellon in 2006, make an appearance at the 2010 Toy Fair? Interbots is planning to bring an affordable child-friendly version of the $80,000 bot to market by the end of the year, and the reps on hand told us that it'll even have similar puppeteering capabilities. Sounds like a potential nightmare for parents, but there's something about this guy that makes us sure about his future as much-adored, bona fide family member.

Interbots Quasi robot

See more video at our hub!

[arnavdesai Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:24PM]

The apocalypse cometh!

[Gigaflop Posted Feb 16th 2010 12:27PM]

@arnavdesai only if his remote control falls into the hands of skynet! Actually though, for some reason I feel like this guy would be a perfect mascot for Android phones.

[Blaugrana23 Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:24PM]

lol? what happened to GI Joes?

[ChansteR Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:25PM]

Video is dead :(

[TikiTeko Posted Feb 15th 2010 9:10PM]

@ChansteR I know huh, I was expecting to see the video. Bummer.

[Mr iPhone Posted Feb 15th 2010 11:48PM]

@ChansteR
Are you sure? Works for me.

[noob4u Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:25PM]

i hope this doesnt catch on like ferbies did

[New Reformation Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:42PM]

@noob4u

Aww, come on. Youtube will once again be populated with videos like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usEKqwmH6CY&feature=related

[mikeyrogers Posted Feb 15th 2010 9:01PM]

@noob4u

He's actually been around for some time. I've seen him at the annual SIGGRAPH conferences. Always good for a chuckle, then you realize that you're just having a conversation with someone with a voice modulation box and awkwardly walk away.

[TikiTeko Posted Feb 15th 2010 9:09PM]

@noob4u Furbies are the creepiest toys in the face of the Earth...

I mean Chucky was afraid of Furbies... !!!!

Heck, even Chuck Norris is afraid of Furbies.... Those big eyes, they just give him the creeps.

[XciteMe Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:25PM]

This robot WILL find the knife drawer in your kitchen. And it WILL kill you.

[artemis360 Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:26PM]

Awwwww...

[MizzleSizzle Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:27PM]

$80,000? Does it make coffee?

[XciteMe Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:28PM]

@MizzleSizzle Um, for $80K, it better crap out solid gold coffee beans.

[MizzleSizzle Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:45PM]

@XciteMe
And wipe up after itself!

[New Reformation Posted Feb 15th 2010 9:25PM]

@MizzleSizzle

actually I would be very willing to clean up for it...

[jedimacfan Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:46PM]

It looks like the runt from Batteries Not Included. Yes, I am old enough to remember this movie.

http://www.ketzer.com/original_movie_props/wheems.jpg

[tavisjohn Posted Feb 15th 2010 10:40PM]

@jedimacfan They are re-directing your hotlinking to this image:
http://www.ketzer.com/images/stolen_image_spacer.gif

[siva Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:49PM]

$80,000...even the tempting sex robots that showed up the other day on Engadget don't cost that much

[Post Insanity Posted Feb 15th 2010 8:51PM]

Wow, i am absolutely baffled at its ability to recognize the different speech patterns and algorithms of the human voice so accurately.
Props to the students at CMU.

[TikiTeko Posted Feb 15th 2010 9:06PM]

Awww... It is like if Wall-E and Pinocchio were melted into one core !!!

It looks cool.

[LAY Posted Feb 15th 2010 9:21PM]

looks like someone melted the Skin off of Evil Elmo.

[Hearsay Posted Feb 15th 2010 10:12PM]

Oh! I wanted to seem more about the control of the robot. Can you post another video where he describes the user interface and control?

[bigfatpanda Posted Feb 15th 2010 10:47PM]

wow the video is really good, had to watch it 2x

[Eternity Posted Feb 15th 2010 11:15PM]

Skynet is slowly building it's robot army... One for each home for every family. Don't be fooled by how cute they are.. these things are DEADLY I TELL YA!

[scnarf Posted Feb 16th 2010 3:26AM]

GIR!!!!!! :)

[JustThatNerdyGuy Posted Feb 16th 2010 4:18AM]

Jesus that robot is scary imagine if made one from hard metals and set it off as a robot assasin...