Kokoro Co. Ltd.’s I-FAIRY robot was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas this weekend.  The “i” in its name stands for intelligent information icon, and its design is meant to evoke a “lovely fairy”.  The robot detects when people are standing nearby and automatically begins reciting its lines, so it is being positioned as a guide or receptionist robot for museums.

Users simply record their own voice or use the text-to-speech software to generate the robot’s lines in English or Japanese.  Motions can be generated through a simple editing suite or automatically by the software, which analyzes the speech and inserts naturalistic motions like head nods and arm gestures.  By generating motions in real-time, the robot can be used as a stand-in during live presentations where a human speaks into a microphone off-stage while the robot moves automatically.

The robot sits atop a pedestal at a height of 130cm (4’3″) and has 9 degrees of freedom (head x2, 2 arms x3, whole body x1).  The wrists, fingers, knees, and toes are semi-fixed and can be positioned manually.  It is expected to cost 6,500,000 JPY ($70,000 USD).  A video and a few more photos after the break.

[source: Sankei news (JP) ] via [NODE]

• I-Fairy info .PDF (EN) (JP)
• I-Fairy @ Kokoro (JP)

Media

Video:

Video (Mirror):

Images:

Image credits:
Kokoro | Akihabara News | Impress Robot Watch | Sankei news | GetRobo | Zagni