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Chinese UNISROBO KIRFbot is a not-so-cheap knockoff of NEC's PaPeRo
The KIRFs we normally see are of the cellphone and PMP variety, with the occasional laptop scattered here and there. In fact, this might be the first time we've seen a clone of a serious robot, and not just some remote-controlled toy. Above is the UNISROBO from a pair of Chinese companies, UNIS and Just Good Technology. Those of you with a strong memory may immediately notice its amazing resemblance to NEC's PaPeRo and PaPeRo-mini. Outside of the bright job, the only major aesthetic difference is the LCD embedded in UNISROBO's chest. Under the hood, however, is a different story -- this Chinese knockoff is missing the stereoscopic cameras and ultrasonic sensors that helped its Japanese inspiration navigate. There's one thing these copycats are not though -- cheap. UNIS will be selling two models at 2,980 and 3,980 Yuan (about $460 and $615). One more picture after the break.
Cuteness overload: NEC introduces PaPeRo-mini
Although it may or may not have the same taste for fine wine or human flesh as its big brother, NEC's new PaPeRo-mini companion bot nonetheless retains all the wacky interactivity and adorable visage that made the original PaPeRo so popular among the Japanese schoolgirl crowd. Unfortunately NEC seemed more concerned with showing off the new audio conversation module powering P-mini's personality than laying out specs for the little guy himself, so all we really know about this possible-prototype is that it stands 250 millimeters tall and weighs 2.5 kilograms, as opposed to the larger model's 385-millimeter height and 5-kilogram weight. So yeah, until they stuff this one with some blogging software to help us kick out these posts, color us unimpressed. [Via Impress]
PaPeRo gets blogging software; Engadget one step closer to full automation
Now we were always under the impression that a personal blog is supposed to be just that -- personal -- so we're not sure that we see the advantages of bringing a robot in to automate this process by filling your site with multimedia content that it thinks you'd want to share with the rest of the world. Nonetheless, NEC has done exactly that with its little cannibalistic PaPeRo bot (you know, the one that thinks humans taste like bacon), endowing it with AI software that recognizes certain keywords uttered during a conversation with its master and then scours the net for seemingly-related pics, vids, and tunes. Scheduled to be unveiled at 13th Annual Conference of the Association of Natural Language Processing later this month in Japan, the newly-spec'ed PaPeRo will be tasked with listening to you talk about your boring day at work ("So I commuted the eight feet from bed to desk, blogged all morning, ate lunch, blogged some more, ate dinner, and then blogged until bedtime."), and then turning your page into what we can only imagine will be a blinking, flashing, slow-loading lookalike of some teen's gaudy MySpace. Just be careful what you talk about from now on, because PaPeRo may be listening, and the last thing you want on your blog is a visual representation of that thing you've been doing to your coworkers' coffee every morning for the last eight weeks.[Via Digital World Tokyo]
Oh PaPeRo, what have they done?
Someday we'll look back at decisions like this and understand why The Robots have risen against us. It turns out that NEC's wine tasting robot is just their little food taster all growed-up and hooked on the vices of drink and cigarettes just like little German girls. Poor little guy, if we see you staggering the halls of CES in a wife-beater smelling of sewage then we'll know it's the booze talkin', not our sweet, sweet PaPeRo.[Thanks, Daniel]
PaPeRo : Shibuya girls' favorite robot
While we tend to prefer more aggressive robots, or more sporty robots, most of the 500 Shibuya girls surveyed in the latest issue of Robot Life tend to prefer kawaii (um, cuteness). The champion of the informal 500 person poll was PaPeRo, a short stubby little mini robot that looks like the lovechild of R2D2 and the Fighting Nun puppet. PaPeRro, whom we fell in love with at CeBIT, beat out such competitors as the security guard bot Wakamaru and the ifBot, an elderly-friendly little droid. We still think that PaPeRo should enter the Robo-One in the Space competition, which is totally feasible since it has few years to work it out and get in fighting shape. Click on for the list of today's best robots, as rated by a ton of Japanese ladies.[Via Wired Blogs]
