A lot of life is plotting ways to freak your friends out, and there’s nothing like a weird robotic head sitting on your desk to do the job. Maki is an “emotive robot” from HelloRobo that you build with 3D printed parts, plus third party tech like sensors.
The idea is to provide a relatively inexpensive platform so researchers or home users can work on developing interactive robot software without having to design and develop their own model for testing. $US30 buys the files to print Maki parts and since users decide what their Maki will be used for, they only need to buy components that contribute to that testing.
The Maki Kickstarter has 19 days left and includes stretch goals like adding arms to the Maki design using HelloRobo’s AX-12 grippers, or introducing smartphone/Raspberry Pi integration. [Kickstarter via IEEE Spectrum]