TEROOS robotic avatar gives your long-distance girlfriend a tiny, googly-eyed face (video)

Do you pine for animatronic eyes and robots that whisper sweet nothings to your ear? Well, geeks with distant girlfriends rejoice, because TEROOS, the shoulder-mounted, remotely-controlled telepresence avatar has arrived. Created by researchers from Keio University in Japan, the little bot has a camera and mic to date away friends can see and listen to what you do, while a directional speaker keeps your conversations private. Communication’s courtesy of Skype , while some custom code lets users control the device’s six-axis articulating head. It’s not an independent system, however, because it depends a smartphone to relay commands from a computer to the avatar through Bluetooth. Users may also change the bot’s facial expressions way to a number of googly eyes and mechanical eyelids, though it doesn’t have quite the emotional range of other androids from the land of the rising sun. Intrigued? Check the vid after the break.

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This post is tagged: independent system, keio university in japan, land of the rising sun, private communication, whisper sweet nothings