A Cell Phone Helper Robot

Your next mobile phone could come with a helper robot. At least that’s the concept behind this prototype from Japanese carrier KDDI which were showing its Polaris phone in robot combo at this year’s Ceatec Exhibition. The phone sits on a cradle and communicates various status of the robot which is able to manipulate this and provide helpful suggestions to its user. KDDI liken this to a personal secretary and said it would deliver essential information where ever you may be and with whom ever you may be talking. But there were few specifics on how this could be put into practice. KDDI offer the example of the robot analyzing a user’s diet and offering suggestions. What presumably the user would have to enter what they eat each day for this to happen. Now there seems to be no reason why a robot could do this any better than software running on the phone except perhaps that the robot’s cuter. Being spherical allows the robot to be far a little but it doesn’t have a particularly long range. So something potentially useful like having your mobile phone run away of the house and find you when it rings is probably beyond its capabilities. KDDI presented the robot developed by flower robotics as a prototype as a commercialization could come as early as 2010. There’s no word yet on how much it might cost. That’s Ceatec 2009. This is Martin Williams, IDG News Service.

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