Not often that I see blog entries on robots I haven’t heard about, but I guess I’d better get used to it given the coming (and current) increase in robotics. Here’s Chapit, a creation Raytron robotics company… or so it seems. Oddly enough, even though cited by multiple news sources as the creators, Raytron appears to have no pictures or mention of the robot on their page.

Anyway, Chapit is designed for home-automation and entertainment purposes, which I’m very happy to hear because I’ve felt for quite a while that the home-automation industry really needs a fresh breeze and a large dose of take-advantage-of-the-latest-technology. Most of the home automation companies out there care nothing of aesthetics and virtually exclude any intelligence in their machines (brainless-ugly-boxes are their flagship products).

Chapit is a fresh breeze, as I think his design is absolutely great. The white look is fantastic, and the placement and movement of his head and feet give him a compact yet incredibly lively appearance. His limited motorskills also partially make up for the fact that he’s stationary, and the multiple facial gestures add a robofriendly flavor. Chapit can help around your home by interacting with various home appliances, such as turning your TV and lights on and off. My source (below) mentioned tuning in on your favorite TV Show, which sounds plausible. Chapit is controlled via voice commands, and according to Raytron (I didn’t find a direct source) he comes with 100 words built in, but they additionally claim he can learn up to 10.000. For what exactly Chapit will use these 10000 words, and if he can use them in a sensible manner remains to be seen. My guess is that he uses it for general chit-chatting for entertainment purposes.

A great feature which is included in almost every new home entertainment robot coming out these days, is an internet/WiFi connection to be able to remote control Chapit through the web. While admittedly this is more useful for mobile robots, it’s a great feature. Especially if you can use VOIP with Chapit.

Check out the video of the little guy above, I’m sure you’ll like him (any inkblot earth reader speak Japanese and want to translate the gist of that video for us?). I hear that he’s due in stores 2008. Start saving up.

[via electro^plankton]

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