Ifbot: Talking Cuddling Robot for Elderly

Ifbot Talking Cuddling Robot for Elderly
Business Design Laboratory Co, a Nagoya-based high-tech venture business, said Wednesday it has developed a 45-cm-tall "cuddling robot" for elderly people which is capable of conversing with them by using tens of thousands of input dialogue patterns.

If a person talks to the "ifbot" by saying, "Today, I'm in bad health," it responds with, "Perhaps you are overtired. Why don't you rest today?" The robot can put riddles to the elderly and play a quiz game, while always using respectful expressions in Japanese. It costs 604,800 yen.

Presented as a "domestic communication robot", the machine can understand and speak human language (at least Japanese language), thanks to a database of "tens of thousands dialogue scenes".

But the robot is also able to learn from the habits and personality of its owner. It can recognize up to ten persons from their face or voice, and adapts to the emotional tones of the speaker.

ifbot can move alone (avoiding obstacles and detecting steps), take pictures and send them wirelessly via the Internet.