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In Japan, a robot was created in the form of a baby without a face. What is it for?

In the world there are a huge number of robots andEach of them has its own purpose. For example, humanoid robots from Boston Dynamics can be used in construction and for loading heavy loads into cars and ships. But among all of them, there are devices that help older people with daily tasks and prevent them from feeling lonely. Recently, the Japanese company Vstone has created a robot called Hiro-chan, which partially solves this problem. It is made in the form of a baby, capable of expressing emotions. The creators believe that while caring for him, people from nursing homes will feel that someone needs them. But why does the robot have no face and is it capable of reproducing only sounds?

Appearance of the Japanese robot Hiro-chan

About the unusual robot and the intent of its developerswas told in the IEEE Spectrum. Outwardly, the novelty looks like a soft toy in the form of a baby, which is capable of reproducing more than a hundred different sounds made by real children. When the robot is left alone, it begins to cry and as if to demand to be picked up and reassured. If you pick him up and hug him, he slowly calms down and starts laughing. The developers believe that if older people care at least about this device, they will get the opportunity to experience positive emotions and feel that they are not alone.

Japanese robot Hiro-chan is able to express emotions even without facial expressions

It’s worth agreeing that Vstone’s ideaIt seems very strange. At the moment, we can’t say for sure whether the robot can really save older people from loneliness. But, perhaps, the researchers know something that is not clear to us - after all, it was not in vain that they decided to work on such a strange project?

What do you think of this unusual robot? You can share your opinion in the comments or in our Telegram chat.

Testing a Hiro-chan robot in reality will not amount toa lot of work. Due to the lack of a complex mechanism for expressing emotions through facial expressions, the creators were able to achieve the lowest possible cost of new items. It is reported that it costs no more than 5.5 thousand yen, which in terms of our money is approximately 3 thousand rubles. Many nursing homes will be able to allow such a robot, but the demand will probably arise only from Japanese institutions. For residents of the United States and especially Russia, robotic technology still seems to be something suspicious, but in Japan they have become something quite familiar. By the way, you can read about the Japanese love for robots in our special material.