Paro: Paro is still as cute and fluffy as ever; there are no hardware updates but Paro did get approval this year from the FDA to be sold as a medical device. Your insurance company still isn’t likely to pay for one if you get sick, but they’re working on that too.

[ Paro ]

Keepon: the big news here is that Keepon is getting redesigned with a new internal structure that reduces costs by a factor of ten without sacrificing any functionality. Four figures is still not a whole lot better than five as far as you and I buying one goes, but give it another year or two and maybe we’ll see another zero (or two, please make it two) chopped off of that price.

Oh, and thanks to a night out clubbing in Vegas with Marek Michalowski, I think I’ve figured out where Keepon gets his awesome dance moves.

Or maybe it’s the other way around.

[ Keepon ]

Just because a real Keepon is too expensive for anyone to afford doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to make one for yourself, and it doesn’t even have to be (technically) edible. Limitless Boredom created their very own astonishingly similar DIY Keepon out of a bunch of R/C helicopter parts, CrabFu style. Seriously, it’s such a good reproduction that it makes me wonder where that $30k really goes…

By way of comparison, after the jump you can watch a video of a pair of Keepons dancing with HOAP-3 at the ICRA ‘08 Human-Robot Interaction Challenge. (Read more…)

If you know Keepon, you also know the feeling of OMG WHERE CAN I GET ONE!?!! As always, Trossen Robotics is here to sate your robot lust (in some ways, anyway) with their new Keepon inspired USB Dancebot. Featuring gyroscopically stabilized dancing action, the USB Dancebot also uses revolutionary new biomorphic body units that may increase the level of squishy to dangerous new heights. It’s $249.00, which is about a hundred times cheaper than the original Keepon, and should be available in kit form (tasty looking elastic biomorphic body units and all) sometime soon.

Watch the complicated and intricate construction process, after the jump. (Read more…)

From Wikipedia:

Pungmul, or nongak, is a Korean folk music tradition that includes drumming, dancing, and singing [AND ROBOTS]. Most performances are outside, with tens of players [AND ONES OF ROBOTS], all in constant motion.

Pungmul is rooted in the dure (collective labor) farming [AND ROBOT] culture. It was originally played as part of farm work, on rural holidays, at other village community-building events, and in shamanistic [ROBOT] rituals. Today it has expanded in meaning and is also used in political protest and as a performing art form [FEATURING ROBOTS].

And if it’s on Wikipedia, we all know it must be true.

[ BeatBots ]

When we met Keepon at CES in January, we made sure to ask Marek Michalowski why Keepon costs $30,000. And the answer is that he’s built to be durable, out of premium components, and here’s why:

Ouch. Poor lil’ guy. But with 30k under the hood, he’s obviously able to stand up to it. This clip is from The Works, a show on the History Channel hosted by Daniel Wilson, author of the hilariously informative book How To Survive A Robot Uprising.

[ BeatBots ]

If you’re wondering what the highlight of CES was for me, it wasn’t the Microsoft keynote, it wasn’t the party I just got back from at the top of the Palms Fantasy tower, and it wasn’t any of this stuff. No, as you may have guessed (if you’ve spent much time reading BotJunkie), it was finally finally getting a chance to meet Keepon, the squishy little yellow BeatBot.

Alongside Keepon (and another Keepon) was Marek Michalowski, the founder of BeatBots and co-creator of the robot. Marek was showing off some new features like Wiimote control, and talking a little bit about his current research. Check it out:

Just a reminder that Keepon is currently available in a hand-built $30,000 version, but BeatBots is working on something significantly more affordable. And I have to say, Keepon is WAY CUTER in person, and he is exactly as soft and squishy as he looks. He does that little double bounce thing and head tilt and I totally melt. Marek says he’s got two of these at home, and I honestly don’t know how he gets anything done with them around.

As far as I know, Keepon will be at CES through Sunday, so if you have any questions or picture/video requests, post in the comments and I’ll gladly go back… I’ll take any excuse to poke Keepon a bunch more in his little yellow belly.

[ BeatBots ]

Keepon’s recent commercial release left us all a little bit depressed about his $30,000 price tag. GetRobo has an interview with Keepon’s developer, Hideki Kozima, where he discusses why the robot costs so much, talks a little bit about the history and uses of Keepon, and gives some hints about what might be in store for a less expensive, consumer version. Here’s a taste:

Q. After people heard about the news of Keepon being commercialized, some readers asked why the robot had to be so expensive. Why does Keepon Pro cost $30,000?

A. The short answer is the high cost of manufacturing in small volumes and the high-end electronic components that we use.

Since Keepon was initially developed as a tool to conduct psychological experiments to observe voluntary communication behaviors between children and the robot, safety was of paramount importance. Children will not only touch Keepon but they will hit it, sit on it, bite it, etc. The robot had to be safe and also resilient enough that it wouldn’t break easily.

…

In addition to manufacturing costs, we use miniaturized and high-quality components. Keepon has two CCD cameras made by ELMO that cost several thousand dollars each with optics, a high-end Sony microphone, and four actuators manufactured by Maxon of Switzerland that are several hundred dollars each.

So, to summarize, Keepon was initially developed as a tool for academic research and thus it required expensive components to conduct accurate experiments. When I first designed it in 2002, I never dreamed that it would be commercialized. It never occurred to me that people would want it until Marek posted a video on YouTube in spring of 2007.

Q. But you are planning on producing a cheaper version of Keepon.

A. Yes. Our first product, Keepon Pro (which has the same specifications as the original Keepon), costs $30,000. But we are committed to making a more inexpensive model. The newer version will not need the precision to conduct psychological experiments, so the goal is to streamline the manufacturing process without losing the original life-like movements and presence. We are designing a new mechanism from scratch. Customers such as schools for children with disabilities and elderly care facilities will be able to utilize it for their needs.

Click on through for the complete interview… If you’re interested in Keepon, it’s worth the read.

[ GetRobo ]

Finally finally finally finally FINALLY!!! I have been waiting for this moment ever since I saw Keepon in his video debut over a year ago. Since then, I’ve been posting Keepon vids whenever I can find them. I mean, how could you not desperately want a couple squishy yellow balls stuck together with two eyes and a cute little nose and an astonishing amount of dance talent (for having no arms and no legs and being only six inches tall)?

So yes, I’d sell my soul for Keepon. My soul, however, is not likely to be worth the roughly $30,000 that Keepon apparently costs. And that’s just the the base price, which I guess doesn’t include any of the little hats that he appears in. Unfortunately for fans like me, Keepon is designed primarily to do research on interactions between robots and children, so he’s expected to sell mostly to research institutions (and museums). But there is some good news… Keepon’s designers are “planning to come out with a new version which will use a simpler mechanism and have a cheaper price tag.” Significantly cheaper, I hope. And please, please, make sure it stays yellow and squishy with the awesome dance moves.

Keepon dancing, after the jump. (Read more…)

I’m gonna try real hard to pretend that this isn’t a Keepon videospam post (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and talk a little bit about what everyone’s favorite little dancin’ squishbot is actually designed to do, since he’s more than just a pretty face. Really, he is. Keepon was created to exchange emotions with, and provide attention to, small children in a simple and comprehensive way. Although he’s programmed to track faces and dance autonomously, when working with children, Keepon is generally controlled by a remote operator. He’s capable of two primary actions: “attentive” (Keepon is “looking” at something specific) and “emotive” (rocking back and forth or bobbing up and down). The simplicity of these actions means that Keepon is very, very easy to understand, relate to, and get along with.

Keepon works at a day-care center for children with developmental delays and/or disorders. Despite his simplicity, he seems to be quite effective as an interactive diagnostic tool:

The children showed various actions in relation to Keepon. Sometimes they showed vivid facial expressions that even their parents had not seen before. They also showed prosocial actions like trying to feed Keepon, putting on a cap on its head, and kissing it. As a whole, the observations suggest the following points:

-The children with difficulty in inter-personal communication (especially, those with PDD and autism), were able to approach to Keepon with curiosity and security. This is probably because Keepon seemed to be neither a complex human nor a simple toy.

-Some of the children extended their diadic interaction with Keepon into triadic inter-personal interaction, where they tried to share the pleasure and surprise they found in Keepon with others, like their caregivers and nursing staff.

-Each child showed a different style of interaction that changed over time, which would tell us a “story” of his or her personality and developmental profile, which would not be thoroughly explained by a diagnostic label like “autism”.

Not bad for a little yellow puffball, right? More Keepon vids (the ones you really want to see) after the jump. (Read more…)

What can I say, I’m in love. I just have to keep posting Keepon vids whenever I can find them, in the vain hope that somehow, someone will just SEND ME HIM TO PLAY WITH. Does Keepon dance to bagpipes? I could test it out, you know. It could be vitally important.

The sweatband absolutely kills me.

[ BeatBots ]