Japanese Store Selling Custom-Made Robots That Look Like Their Owners

December 14, 2009 by Lisa Zyga weblog
Japanese robot

Japanese robotic company Kokoro will be manufacturing the customized robots. Kokoro also makes "actroids," like that shown here. Credit: Kokoro.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Department store competition is fierce in Japan during the winter holidays, with every store trying to come up with the most attention-catching promotional campaign. This year, the department store Sogo & Seibu may top them all with its offer of robots that are custom-made to look just like their owners.

The robotic doppelgangers will be life-size humanoids that can even speak with a real person's (recorded) voice. Made of silicone, the robots will be able to move their upper bodies, although there are not many other details on their design or what they can or cannot do.

With a price of $225,000 per , Sogo & Seibu isn't sure how many buyers they'll actually have. Currently, the company plans to offer just two robots, and if there are more than two interested buyers, Sogo & Seibu will have a lottery to choose two winners.

The robots will be manufactured by the Japanese robotic company Kokoro, which is known for its realistic robotic androids. One of Kokoro's "actroid" robots appeared in a Japanese TV commercial last year (pictured above).

via: CrunchGear
© 2009 PhysOrg.com

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Mr_Frontier
Dec 14, 2009

Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
Soon we will be able to pleasure ourselves with ourselves in ways unimaginable. Million dollar orgy.
paulthebassguy
Dec 14, 2009

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Exactly, you could make a robot of a girl who never wanted to go out with you.
Buyck
Dec 15, 2009

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The first "human like robots" coming in our society! A tiny but great step forward.
GaryB
Dec 19, 2009

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Exactly, you could make a robot of a girl who never wanted to go out with you.


What kind of quality control is that!? I wouldn't want to own a robot that would go out with the likes of me.
Magnator
Dec 19, 2009

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Cool, I hope in a few decades we'll be able to have our own robot maids to do all the house work.
ShadowRam
Jan 21, 2010

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Exactly, you could make a robot of a girl who never wanted to go out with you.


What kind of quality control is that!? I wouldn't want to own a robot that would go out with the likes of me.


Think there would be a law against making a look-alike robot?
Rank 4.4 /5 (14 votes)
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