Meet “OriHime”, a 60cm-tall robot designed and built by Japanese engineering student Kentaro Yoshifuji. It’s not out to do battle with alien creatures or provide those with immense disposable incomes something metallic and pretty to look at, but to give the lonely and isolated a sympathetic, if electronic, friend.
According to Plastic Pals, Yoshifuji isn’t crazy about science fiction. Nor does he have experience creating human-looking robots. OriHime certainly isn’t life-like, but it’s easy to see the shape has been influence by, well, curves distinctly of human origin.
OriHime’s green eyes and expressionless face are “a bit scary”, an observation Yoshifuji agrees with, but it’s about the robot’s range of motion and its ability to show emotion via its body language make up for this. A clip of OriHime in action can be found below and, while there’s work to be done, I did find myself feeling a bit reproached when it put its hands on its hips.
[, via Plastic Pals]