Keepon is Now on Sale!

For those who've been asking.......YES! The cuddly cute robot Keepon is now on sale! The creators of Keepon - Hideki Kozima in Japan and Marek Michalowski in the U.S. - have started a company - BeatBots LLC - to commercialize the robot. They are working with Japan's Kokoro Company to manufacture a research-level version called Keepon Pro.

Right now, at a base price of $30,000 a bot, Keepon Pro is expected to sell mostly to research institutions for studies in Human Robot Interaction (HRI) and to museums. But if you wait a little while, they are "planning to come out with a new version which will use a simpler mechanism and have a cheaper price tag," says Kozima-san, who on Oct. 1 just changed jobs from NICT (where he spent the last 14.5 years) to become a professor at Miyagi University.

For those who are unfamiliar with Keepon, it is a robot initially developed by Prof. Kozima to do research on interaction between robots and children - thus the cuddly features. His observations of autistic children playing with Keepon have led him to think about the quintessence of autism and ways of applying such robots to therapeutic care.

Meanwhile, Marek, who is a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, met Prof. Kozima through a former advisor and developed software that made Keepon react to rhythms and music. When he posted a video of a dancing Keepon to YouTube, it became a global sensation. WIRED Magazine produced a promotion video last year with Keepon and the rock band Spoon.

Now Marek is exploring the role of rhythm in human-robot social interaction using Keepon as his thesis platform. Humans nod and display rhythmic motions when communicating with each other, but how about robots? Would robots be able to communicate with people more efficiently if they used rhythmic synchrony?

HRI is a hot topic in the robotics community and some groups use advanced humanoid robots to do research. Keepon, on the other hand, represents a minimalistic approach. Its appearance and behavior are simple yet dynamic and expressive enough to be able to conduct meaningful social research.

AND it's cute - bringing us back to Keepon Pro. Since its YouTube debut, the public has clamored to see more Keepon, so Kozima-san and Marek have been busy traveling around the world to invited events. And people started asking them whether they were ever going to commercialize it. The two won the Robots at Play Prize in Denmark last year, and that prize money went into starting the company.

Keepon Pro is only the first product from BeatBots. Their business plan is to design, develop and market new robots that can be used in research, therapy and entertainment.

(An update on this story here.)

Comments

[Joanne]

I love these, they remind me of something off a kids film, such fun would love one to show my mates !!!

[thomas]

pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease put these on sale!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!??????!!!!!!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!??!?!??!?!????!!!!!??????!!

[mona]

i want this for my son but to much expensive.... =(

[Keepon.]

Keepon: Hey Guess What?

You: What?

Keepon: Your Momm!

[Keepon.]

Keepon says

"your breath stinks"

[Keepon]

Keepon Say's
"Take Ur Clothes Off!!"

[A Fat Raving German]

I Like Keepon.

[a welsh guy]

i like sheep

[Liam Bailey]

(o.o)
(___)
Keepon Is Cool

[Apy]

Hi Bailerz :D

[Joe]

(o.o)
( )

Keepon

[Myst]

you should make lots more of theas robots, make them in differnt colors and make them a LOT cheaper. If you could put them in stores and make it so people can actuly get it it would be the most buyed thing in the whole WORLD. i am saying this because ther are sooooooo cool and i relly want one but at 30000...... i don't think i would ever get one. But i rellly want one.
they are so cute and cool :)

/----\
\O .O/ who's a cute robot? you are
/ \
\ /
----

[Haze Him]

Wow!!

[Papers on Research]

looks quite a great post, it's having good information for research analysis. great job

[jack]

i'll give you 150$ in cash for one but 30,000$ is toooooooo expensive.

[ron]

rofl, i want one
keepon is freaking awesome

[hmar]

lol i wish if it starts for 30000 $ i can't believe this no way is this the parts price it's probably the research's cost and not the robot because it's made of swevos and computer proggraming mechanism an that;s it u can buy a extreamly amazing robot for 30000 $ and a dancing 2 balls thing although it's awsome

[Joe]

Can i have one for £30 >_< pleaseee!!!!

(i'll treat it really nice)

[Heather]

I really want to know when they will be available to the public. 30,000 is pretty steep just to have one at home. I can tell you this though, as soon as I can get one that isn't so costly... I will have them everywhere I can put one!

[Norri Kageki]

You can contact Marek and/or Kozima-san from here http://beatbots.org/contact/

[bill]

were do I get one??????? I neeeddddd one!!!