Robohon robot doubles as smartphone

IDG News Service | Oct 6, 2015

Sharp's cute robot is on show at the Ceatec electronics show outside Tokyo.

Robohon is a robot that doubles as, a smartphone. Or is it a smartphone that doubles as a robot. Either way it comes from Japan's Sharp and a country that has brought us just about every crazy robot we've ever seen.

The cute Robohon stands just 20 centimeters and will go on sale in Japan in the half of 2016.

The robot has a camera, an LCD screen, a microphone, speaker and voice recognition system. There's also a projector in its head for you to play movies or display images.

In a demonstration at the Ceatec electronics show outside Tokyo the robot responded to instructions to place a call, take a picture, display that picture through a projector and dance.

The idea would be to use Robohon to make hands free calls and when you're not, you can put it in a jacket pocket and have a conversation with it. That's what the bot's creator did. While he said he could imagine using Robohon, he said he wouldn't give up his iPhone just yet.

To make calls, you could use hands free mode or hold it up to your face like a smartphone, but that might look a little goofy. Then again, not much about this robot is serious or practical. Maybe that's why we think it's so cute.