RoBoHon — a next generation smartphone to be released next year!
A day in the life of a Baby developer
SHARP’s RoBoHon grabbed many’s attention at this year’s CEATEC Japan this past week.
Yet another social robot? Nay, RoBoHon is a human shaped mobile phone. It is a crossbreed of SHARP’s mobile phone and AI technology and ROBO GARAGE’s creativity (spearheaded by robot creator, Takahashi Tomotaka.)
When I first saw this, I did every robot developer would do: check the specs and functions to make sure there is no overlap with OUR robot! Woe is us if all of the things we wanted to do had already been realized by this Robi-look-a-like! (BTW, Robi is also Takahashi Tomotaka’s creation.)
RoBoHon’s basic specs can be found here, but you can check out the above vid for what SHAPR claims it can do. It is small enough that it can fit into your pocket (only the upper body though,) and it has many of the mobile phone’s features and more; it can make and receive phone calls; it has a cloud-based voice and face recognition; it has both camera and image projector functions; it can send and receive emails ( and it can, judging from the video above, read aloud those emails. ) One thing to note is that SHARP marketized it as a mobile phone that people can feel attached to and want to take everywhere they go, and not so much as a “social robot.”
What does a social robot developer think of that?
OK, I can’t just clamp my hands over my eyes and try to pretend it did not do anything to me— I admit it, it is damn cute.
Yes, the concept, the face, the hands (even the clumsy looking hands simply add cuteness), the move and even the dance, they are all adorable. Had I not been involved in a robot development project myself, I would have been charmed in a second. Only the robot developer part of me was saying “deny it, you can’t accept its cuteness and be a successful Baby robot developer myself at the same time!” But again, RoBoHon has certain charm one can’t seem to escape — bravo to SHARP and ROBO GARAGE for that!
Yet, I think it is intellectually dishonest if I end my monologue here and say nothing beyond. I think, as a robot developer, it lacks certain qualities that enable it to become part of human life. I have mainly two contentions to make, and at the risk of sounding like a jealous robot developer, here I go:
For a starter, the shape is a clear indication that the creator wanted it to become and be recognized as a robot. Then why not treat it in a way that is consistent with the idea? Meaning, why does the person in the video talking to RoBoHon’s crotch while on the phone? Why not to its face? The body part is not the problem per se (although being a gal living in 21st century, I would feel weird talking to someone’s crotch,) but it is just that when a person holds RoBoHon and talks to its lower body part, it simply looks odd. RoBoHon looks sad, even, to me. With its adorable looking face, I would want to talk to its face while placing a phone call, not to its crotch… (OK, I’ve said crotch one too many times in one post.) The jury is still out on whether or not it is a robot or a smartphone, but I think it needs a clearer definition of what it is.
This leads to my second point that it lacks strong value proposition: if it is marketized as a smartphone with lovable face and body, I would not feel the urge to replace my iPhone with this. Just like most of non-tech savvy folks out there who probably do not even read Medium, I do not feel the need to abandon a perfectly good iPhone for something not-so-easy-to-carry robot-shaped phone. Unless there is something extraordinarily practical about this, I would not bother myself to use this on a daily basis. This is in fact our own challenge as well, since we are struggling hard to come up with the social robots’ raison d’etre. What differentiates social robots from smartphones, the web, or other communication devices? Is there any special role only social robot can fulfill? We are yet to see a good example, or a use case of it rather, where robot is one and only shining star to fulfill such role. For example, its UI is still underdeveloped, and interfacing via voice is not yet practical for most people (if you spend at least a few hours, even few minutes with Siri, you would know that vocal interface is a lot more cumbersome than other methods, say, browsing.) Maybe it is arrogant for one company to try to come up with social robots’ raison d’etre. However, unless I can convince myself, ourselves that we want it, we need it badly — badly enough that we cannot help but to create it — we cannot change and touch upon billions’ people’s lives.
We are grateful to be part of this movement: the emergence of social robots. As part of the international robotics community (hey, no official registration required, right?) healthy competition is always to be welcomed! Together, we can form robot landscape and eco-system whereupon different types of robots exit in harmony…or otherwise?
Wishing RoBoHon’s success, and cannot wait til the day RoBoHon and Baby finally meet face to face:)
XOXO
Yuki
