JIBO is “the world’s first family robot”, from social robotics pioneer and MIT professor Cynthia Breazeal. The friendly, intelligent robot may offer a glimpse of what’s to come in our living room. The intriguing project is being crowdfunded at Indiegogo, where it has already exceeded its goal of US$100,000 with US$846,500 worth of backers so far.
So what is JIBO? Think of JIBO as a personal assistant and a friend, but unlike the smart devices of today where you’d interact by swiping on a flat surface, you’d talk to JIBO like you would to a real person. Yes, like Siri, somewhat. While JIBO isn’t HAL, it’s still highly intelligent, and it would learn and adapt to your lifestyle as you move along.
JIBO reminds me of that adorable Pixar lampshade, and in many ways, the “lampshade” iMac too. He remains static as he does not have an ability to move around, however, his body and head movements are fluid and rather human-like. His body movements convey emotional states, just as humans do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N1Q8oFpX1Y
JIBO skills include performing simple tasks like taking voice reminders, making phone calls and messages, connecting the family’s phones via Wi-Fi, as well as like a hub for your home’s devices. In the future, JIBO can also identify faces in a room, take pictures upon request, read stories to a child and guide your through a recipe when you’re cooking.
This, however, is only a fraction of what’s possible with JIBO as founder Breazeal is also opening up the platform to developers. In doing that, expect JIBO to do more extraordinary things in the future. A personal robot for the home? Hell yes.
Image credit: JIBO
