Kobie – the robot koala bear from Korea
The koala isn’t exactly the most exciting animal in the world – it climbs trees and it eats eucalyptus leaves. That’s about it. But it’s not stopped boffins from making a robot one, under the name of Kobie.
It’s one of two robots made by ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Korea), with Kobie able to show seven different emotions – surprise, happiness, sorrow and so on – which is probably six more than the real thing. The aim is to create an object that can give emotional support to patients, with built-in sensors able to recognise the needs of the patient.
Primarily a medical too, so don’t expect to see it in the shops – although the principles behind it are likely to transfer to retail sometime in the near future.
Via Akihabara News
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