There are complex reasons why the Japanese people love
robots so much. In other developed countries, robots are used for a variety of purposes
- answering phones, producing vehicles, or even for national defenses. But for
the Japanese, robots are used not only to help humans, almost all giant
companies there have ambitious vision in the robotics filed.
In October 2015, Sharp introduced a unique device. The idea
behind the creation was the integration between a smartphone and a personal
digital assistant function where both of them were embedded into a cute robot.
The robot was named RoBoHoN, in short, it's a smart robot and at the same time also
functions as communication device. At that time, Sharp had a plan to launch it
in the first half 2016.
RoBoHoN has a 20-centimeter high; it looks cute with black
and white body. It can be controlled by voice, and then there is a 320 ×
240-pixel touch screen on the back to enter complex commands. RoBoHoN can walk,
talk, dance, recognize the sound of its owner, and even it's able to projecting
your photo collection via the build-in projector.
The robot's capabilities are also integrated into the
smartphone capabilities. It can read or send text messages that you say. RoBoHoN
can also be used as a personal photographer, both for selfie or group photos.
Uniquely, if you cry when the robot is projecting images, RoBoHoN will say
'everything will be fine' (in Japanese).
In robohon.com, Sharp shows assortments of RoBoHoN’s
functions. In the workplace, RoBoHoN can help you to find specific info on the
internet, reminding the meeting schedule or other important events. It can also
help you to get recipes when cooking, to accompany you on traveling (plus GPS),
or use it as a projector for watching video.
Viewed from the perspective of mobile devices, the
specification of RoBoHoN may be not as sophisticated as high-end smartphones in
the market. It has supported the 4G LTE network; however it still uses Qualcomm
Snapdragon 400 chipset. To accompany the RoBoHoN, Sharp has set up a number of
accessories such as docking, bag and hanger.
RoBoHoN is offered at a high price, i.e. ¥ 198,000 or about
US $ 1,800. For now, RoBoHoN is only available for consumers in Japan, and it
will be released on 26 May.