Video: Move Over Tamagotchi, Here Comes Pet Robot U.bo

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Taiwanese electronics company Phison has developed some kind of next-generation Tamagotchi, the U.bo. The little guy is supposed to be an alien spore that lives in a six-legged space ship. Unlike the Tamagotchi, U.bo is a robot that can move around – apart from displaying emotions and actions shown on an 121 pixel LED screen.

Much like the Tamagotchi though, U.bo must be fed with cookies to be kept alive and in a good mood. The robot can also, in a way, “fart, “burp”, and do a number of other nasty things (it can “sing and dance”, too). Two U.bo can even “kiss” each other.

You can interact with the robot by touching it (there are touch sensors in its rear) or shaking it (in which case U.bo gets dizzy and stores your wrongdoing in its memory to shape its personality).

The robot, which is sized at 100x85x76mm (weight: 210g) can be remote-controlled and features Bluetooth, an accelerometer, two DC motors, and a 0.5W speaker.

It’s already on sale in Taiwan and parts of Europe where it retails for around $28 (official product page in English).

Here are two videos (more here):

Via Plastic Pals

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