Meet Buddy – The Family Robot

Majority of people are scared of robots. They feel uncomfortable with the fact that they look too much like humans and may even run screaming from some types. What consumer’s really want is something cute and innocent!

The Buddy robot is the perfect family companion! The new robot from Blue Frog Robotics is designed to be an affordable family companion. It can even help with communications, home security, entertainment and elderly care.

With a number of cool built-in features, the robot is able to do everything from remind you of an important event to play a song at your request via its speaker. It’s true that Buddy has a lot of the same features as the JIBO family robot, the big difference is that Buddy can move around on its own and don’t forget Buddy has a friendly face that won’t give you nightmares.

Buddy is mounted upon three motorized wheels that allow it to move around and turn as it pleases, it can move at quite a high speeds. The robot is 56cm tall and weighs 5kg, the perfect size and weight for him to fit right in with the family!

The amazing thing about Buddy is that it can even be connected to your smart devices at home, so you can adjust the lights or thermostat via a voice command or mobile app. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Buddy is its ability to act as a home security system – it can watch over your home while you are away with its built-in cameras.

This friendly-faced robot is also distinctly human and is able to hear, speak, see and address someone with familiar facial expressions and head movements. According to the developers, Buddy can also be a playmate for children and provides parents with a level of respite by reading to kids, helping them with homework and playing games with them.

All this technology means that Buddy has a lot more features like the ability to make video calls, act as a calendar, alarm clock and reminder system. Buddy can also monitor appliance and energy usage.

On top of all that, Blue Frog Robotics also provided Buddy with a social interaction for elderly

people, although that does seem a bit far-fetched. More realistically, Buddy can provide helpful reminders for seniors, detect falls and unusual situations and easily connect them to family members.

At the moment Buddy is under construction, but an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign is underway for this friendly robot!

Buddy looks like a promising idea of a family friendly robot, but then again, so does JIBO! The real question is which robot will make it to the market first and will humans really embrace them?

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