Car navigation system through a Robot Teddy bear
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We’ve posted about the Teddy spycam before, this time Teddy features in the form of a Talking Car navigation system developed by engineers at the iXs Research Corporation. Standing 30 centimeters (1 Ft) tall the Teddy Robot uses the 6 joints in the arms and neck to make gestures while providing spoken directions. You can’t take the Teddy for a toy, as it has an alcohol detection sensor embedded in its neck, so if he smells booze, he’d interrogate “ You haven’t been drinking, have you?” When his other sensors detect reckless driving, he’d say, “Watch out” When you stroke his head, he provides you with extra information about nearby landmarks. The Robot Teddy could give you company on a lonesome drive or grill the **** out of you at times, but it certainly forms an interesting component of your car.
The robot will be commercially available next year. Thankfully the company is intending to offer it in a variety of shapes including other characters and a plain mechanical version. (I can’t have a Teddy or Doll in my car, it’s creepy and it reminds me of Child’s Play) But Fijitsu has also patented the idea of merging car navigation systems with dolls and it has granted iXs Research Corporation permission to use the patent through a Kawasaki area project encouraging major corporations to share intellectual Property rights with other small to medium sized companies. So this development will certainly encourage a leap in the Car Navigation systems.
