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11-Inch Meebo Robot Looks to Entertain Kindergarteners
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
UniFa Co., Ltd is introducing the world's first kindergarten robot. Meet Meebo, an 11-inch tall companion that capitalizes on its cute charm to enthrall 5 and 6-year-olds. The company offers Meebo through its Rukumi rental package for 9,800 yen (about $78.50) a month. Some schools lucked out further though since UniFa is letting them use Meebo for free to collect photos.
The robots abilities, outside of taking pictures for parents, include temperature (in the video, Meebo alerts the teacher to little Shō-kun's fever) and issuing earthquake and allergy alerts. UniFa wants to add video functions to Meebo as well. The company hopes to have 10,000 Meebos in classrooms by 2018.
The robot is based on Vstone Co Ltd's "Sota" robot, although other companies submitted their robots for development as well, including Soft Bank's Pepper and MIT's "Jibo."
[Via Japan Trends]
