Meet Lovot – this is a robot pet that has been created to make people happy. It can react to sight, sound and touch like a real pet. It can also react to your mood and a build a real relationship with you.
Its name is a mash up of the words Love and Robot. Tech Guide got a chance to see Lovot at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
In this case, technology has been used not to improve efficiency or add to your convenience but to create a connection and add some joy to your life.
Lovot stands 45.5cm tall and weighs about 7kg. It has animated eyes and a camera on its head and has two short arms and a wheelbase that folds away when not in use.
Lovot also has facial recognition so it can remember you and recognise you whenever it sees you again.
The robot pet is quite a sophisticated system and it also has numerous sensors onboard and a camera so it can detect objects and move around the room and the rest of your house without bumping in to anything.
It actually creates a map of your home so it will always know its way round, recognise spaces and adjust is speed to suit.
Lovot’s eyes are animated and emotional.
You can even choose their eye colour on the Lovot companion app with one of 16 billions colours.
And they are designed for physical contact. When you pick up Lovot to give it a hug, the base wheels are automatically retracted and stored so they don’t get in the way.
One of the best things about owning a dog is that they’re always waiting for you and are always happy to see you.
In the same way Lovot can detect when your mobile device is getting close to home and will move to the front door to greet you.
Lovot will also automatically move back to its charging station when it needs to recharge while sleeping and receive software updates.
And Lovot is already available in Japan – where it was invented – and it will be soon be available around the world.
Users can order Lovot now from the website – it is priced 299,800 yen (about $AUD4000) for the solo Lovot and 579,800 yen (about $AUD7,800) for a duo.
* Stephen Fenech travelled to Las Vegas with support from LG, Samsung and Hisense
