When
we were young many of us had imaginary friends. They would accompany us and
play when other friends weren’t available. Even now it sometimes helps to have
a conversation with oneself although we wouldn’t set an extra place at the
dinner table.
But
now you can take your friend with you wherever you go. Discovery News in a hot
report from the IEEE conference tells us of Yamagata U’s robotics team who have
built a miniature humanoid friend that will happily ride along on your shoulder
and take in the sights, discuss the poor service that you’re getting in that
foreign café, or tell you that you’re lost.
Your
miniature humanoid friend can wave his arms around (I suspect that they come
dressed as a girl as well as a guy), waggle his head and breathe realistically.
MH–2,
as he is affectionately known, isn’t just an animated doll, but due to the
wonder of radio waves, is a real world avatar for a real friend who was too
busy with a six-pack of their favorite brew to come along on your expedition.
What
happens is that they turn on their Kinect or equivalent and MH–2 follows their
actions and transmits what they should be looking at back to their TV screen so
they too can enjoy the scenery, whether it is buildings, mountains or members
of the opposite sex.
MH–2
does come with a sizable life support backpack so you probably wouldn’t want to
take him up Everest. Also it could be a bit creepy taking him along to the
bathroom. Leaving him outside to chat to strangers would probably be a poor option
and, of course, he would never pay half the dinner check.
