Probo Is A Huggable, Robotic Proto-Elephant

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 22 of April , 2009 at 5:45 am

This is Probo, a robot therapist of sorts who was designed to help explain medical procedures to children. Probo has a touchscreen in his tummy that displays information, a fully animated face that can dynamically display emotions, and an epic nozz (Probo is apparently an ancestor of the modern elephant) which is fully articulated:

Children are able to recognize Probo’s facial expressions nearly 90% of the time, which is pretty good for a strange monster-elephant thing. Unlike elephants (as far as I know), Probo purrs when hugged, but if you hug him too hard, he’ll start to complain. Although Probo isn’t for sale, the developers are considering some kind of commercial spin-off, but in the mean time, they’ve been working on the Probo video game: ProboGotchi.

[ Probo ] VIA [ io9 ]

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Category: Medical

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