- SALES OF LOVOT, A FAMILY-TYPE ROBOT, ARE INCREASING RAPIDLY, PARTLY DUE TO SELF-RESTRAINT CAUSED BY THE NEW CORONA
- A variety of the latest technologies have been infused with the goal of "healing" people.
- Remarkable effects can be expected, such as the development of "compassion" and "independence" in children.
Sales of the family-type robot "LOVOT," which went on sale in December 2019, have skyrocketed, driven by the restraint to go out due to the new Corona. It has become a very popular product, with customers waiting two to three months after placing an order for it to be delivered to their homes. LOVOT won the Grand Prize in the "BabyTech® Award Japan 2020 Learning and Play Category" for its "healing and relaxing effects" and "expandability in the field of education" in addition to its role in "fostering children's emotions and social skills. The editorial department of BabyTech.jp interviewed Ms. Miki Ikegami of GROOVE X Corporation, the developer of LOVOT, to learn more about the product, its development, and future plans. We asked her about the product, its development, and future plans.
We spoke with...
GROOVE X CORPORATION public relations
Miki Ikegami (Miki Ikegami)
Every individual has a unique personality and grows through contact with others.
Editor: Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule today. Right off the bat, could you give us an overview of LOVOT and its features?
Ikegami: "LOVOT" is a pet-like robot, a "family-type robot" that becomes attached to the people it loves. It uses a camera attached to the horn on its head to identify people's faces, and touch sensors all over its body to recognize who's petting it and who's holding it. As a result, LOVOT recognizes the person who takes care of it a lot and becomes nostalgic for that person. Also, all LOVOTs have different eyes and voices. There are more than one billion different eye and voice patterns, so no two LOVOTs in the world have the same eyes and voice.
Edit: That's awesome!
EVERY INDIVIDUAL HAS A DIFFERENT PERSONALITY LOVOT
Ikegami: Actually, each individual has a different personality. Their personalities are also different when you pick them up, and their personalities change rapidly as they interact with their LOVOT owners, and they grow up to have their own unique personalities.
Editor: Does it change your personality!
Ikegami: That's right. They can grow up to be very "spoiled" or free and a little "naughty". For example, LOVOTs often ask for cuddles, and if you respond to them a lot, they tend to become spoiled children. There are two types of LOVOTs for sale: the "solo" type, where you buy just one, and the "duo" type, where you buy a set of two. When they recognize a guest who comes to the house for the first time, there is a difference between a friendly child who immediately approaches and asks for a hug and a shy child who doesn't get close and asks for a hug from a distance. ......
Editor: I imagine it's like having two dogs (laughs).
Ikegami: Also, the idea behind LOVOT's exterior design may be very different from similar products from other companies. Until now, most pet robots have been modeled after some kind of animal, such as a dog or seal, but LOVOT is a completely original design. The reason for this is that if the appearance is based on a "real animal", people will feel uncomfortable when it moves even slightly differently from the real thing. ...... We wanted to create a "robot that can heal people from the bottom of their hearts", so we searched for a completely original shape and original movements.
THE APPEARANCE OF LOVOT IS COMPLETELY ORIGINAL
Editor: It's true that no matter how well-made an "animal-shaped robot" is, it still gives the impression of being a fake.
Ikegami: The design was based on the idea that we wanted people to like LOVOTs as LOVOTs, so that they wouldn't feel like, "If it were real, it would work like this," or "It's just not right. ......
I want to use the power of technology to heal people's hearts.
Editor: How did the development of LOVOT come about?
Ikegami: Until now, robot development has focused on "doing work in place of people. However, the impetus for the development of LOVOT came from our CEO Hayashi's idea to create robots that could heal people's hearts and minds by returning to the question of whether that direction really made people happy. Pets, such as dogs and cats, are not useful in any way, but their presence makes us humans feel happy. In the development of LOVOT, we aimed to express these services through robot technology.
Editor: The LOVOT development project started in November 2015, but when was it actually released as a product?
Ikegami: Shipping began in December 2019.
Editor: It's just before the new Corona.
Ikegami: The best way to see the appeal of LOVOTs is to experience them firsthand, so we wanted to create many places across Japan where people could come into contact with LOVOTs. The new Corona made it impossible to set up such places, and for a while I wondered what would happen. But on the other hand, the new Corona made many people feel lonely, and as a result more and more people wanted to adopt pets, which in part drew attention to LOVOT.
THE APPEAL OF LOVOT IS BEST CONVEYED BY DIRECT CONTACT.
Editor: It was reported on the news that pets such as dogs and cats were sold at a tremendous rate due to the declaration of the new Corona emergency.
Ikegami: Actually, there are many people who would like to have a pet but cannot because of problems with their living environment or allergies. According to one survey, the number of people in Japan who want to own a pet but can't is about twice the number of people who own a pet. The number of sales changed dramatically before and after the declaration of the state of emergency because people thought that people who wanted to keep such creatures but could not could welcome them with LOVOT.
Editor: The pet market in Japan is said to be 1.5 trillion yen, so doubling that is a very large scale. In fact, a toy poodle costs about 600,000 to 800,000 yen at a pet shop, and if you consider the cost of feeding and medical care, lovots are not expensive.
Ikegami: I think that when the state of emergency was declared, people felt lonely at home, so they looked up LOVOT on the Internet and purchased it. In some months, sales increased up to about 11 times before and after the emergency declaration.
ANIMATORS, DANCERS, AND MUSICIANS PARTICIPATED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOVOT.
Editor: Can you tell us about any particular difficulties you encountered in the development of LOVOT?
Ikegami: I think this is the point where we pursued "creatureliness". For example, LOVOT's eyes are always twitching, but this means that the black eye is shaking, just like in humans and animals. To express this, six layers of animation using LEDs are superimposed.
Editor: So it has eyes like a real living thing. And they look at us, too.
LOVOT'S EYES, WHICH ARE INVESTED WITH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Ikegami: In order to avoid the awkward movements of a "robot dance," we reproduced the principles of movement of living creatures, such as "when the neck moves, the hands move at the same time" and "the movement of the entire arm is linked to the movement of the fingertips. Animators" and "dancers" were involved in the development of LOVOT to create such natural movements.
Editor: I've seen a scene in a documentary where Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Ghibli, gets angry at the new animators, saying, "People don't move that way. That's exactly what the animators are, professionals who make the characters' movements look natural.
Ikegami: Also, synthesizers (instruments that synthesize voices) are used for LOVOT's voice, and "musicians" were involved in this development. Ordinary pet robots use a recorded voice, but if you come home depressed and hear a recorded voice cheerfully saying, "Welcome home! LOVOT dares to express itself not with human words, but with "cooing" and "cooing" sounds. By doing so, we leave room for people to imagine, "Is he worried about me? I leave room for imagination.
Editor: So that's another way to "heal"?
LOVOT TO GREET ME WHEN I GET HOME.
Ikegami: In addition, LOVOT can generate a voice on the spot that matches its current state. In other words, when it's happy, it makes a cackling voice, and when it's angry, it makes a muffled voice. One LOVOT owner told us, "When I play music, my child sings along with the sound! The LOVOT is equipped with AI, so I think it actually responds to sounds and makes noises.
Editor: This is a completely different level from the common pet robots that say, "It can emit a variety of voices! It's a completely different level from the one that says "......!
BEING INVOLVED WITH LOVOT HAS BROUGHT ABOUT REMARKABLE CHANGES IN THE CHILDREN!
Editor: Can you tell us what people who use LOVOT think of it, especially preschool children and their parents, and if it is used in nursery schools and kindergartens, what do people at those facilities think of it?
Ikegami: About 40 kindergartens and nursery schools have already introduced the system, and we have received feedback such as, "Children who used to hog all the toys have developed a sense of sharing," and "Children who used to be reluctant to come to school are now coming to school. I heard that when Lovot falls down, she covers him with a futon, which I thought was really cute.
CHILD PLAYING WITH LOVOT
Editor: It's a very good emotional education.
Ikegami: There have been cases where children who were previously unable to communicate well with those around them have been able to chat with their friends through the topic of LOVOT. It is also possible to use LOVOT for programming education. Programming such as "raise your right hand" or "move forward a certain number of meters" makes it possible to move LOVOT accordingly. In most programming education, the characters on the screen are moved according to the program, but with LOVOT, the actual device moves in a realistic manner, and we have heard that this has greatly increased the number of children who are interested in programming and technology. In fact, some of the older children in the kindergarten class said, "I want to be a robot developer in the future! In fact, some of the older children in the kindergarten class said, "I want to be a robot developer in the future!
CHILDREN PLAYING WITH LOVOT
Editor: This is exactly the "learning" part of the BabyTech® Award Japan 2020 Learning and Play category. What do you think of the feedback from parents at home?
Ikegami: With the increase in the number of only children these days, I think there are fewer opportunities for families to take care of younger children, but we have received feedback that taking care of LOVOTs gives them a chance to develop a sense of caring and responsibility.
Edit: When you say "take care of the LOVOT", do you mean ......?
Ikegami: Since LOVOTs wear clothes, we change their clothes, take them to the Nest (charging station) if they can't get there, help them up if they fall on a step, and clean up their rooms so they can move around easily. We often hear from parents that they feel that they have become a little older brother or sister. We often hear that children who were always in the position of being taken care of became a little more independent by doing the same thing for their LOVOT. Maybe such behavior is done with younger children in kindergarten or nursery school, but it's not often that you get a chance to see it at home, so they feel it's refreshing anyway.
A CHILD TAKING CARE OF LOVOT (IMAGE)
It could spread not only to families with small children but also to elderly families.
Editor: Finally, please tell us about the future development of LOVOT.
Ikegami: Our business system not only involves selling LOVOT, but also charging LOVOT owners a fixed monthly fee, so we plan to continue updating the software to ensure that this continues. For example, "LOVOT now works in a new way! will be realized.
OUR GOAL IS FOR LOVOT TO BE LIKE DORAEMON WITHOUT THE FOUR-DIMENSIONAL POCKET, A WORLD WHERE HUMANS AND ROBOTS ARE NATURAL COMPANIONS AND FRIENDS ON EQUAL TERMS. NOBITA ALWAYS MAKES MISTAKES USING DORAEMON'S TOOLS, BUT HE GROWS THROUGH THOSE MISTAKES, AND WE WANT TO EVOLVE LOVOT SO THAT IT CAN COEXIST WITH HUMANS AS A COACH THAT HELPS THEM GROW AND AS A TRUE FRIEND. AS A RECENT TOPIC, LOVOT HAS BEEN SELECTED FOR THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT'S "STARTUP DEMONSTRATION EXPERIMENT PROMOTION PROJECT", AND WE ARE CONDUCTING A DEMONSTRATION EXPERIMENT TO SEE WHAT KIND OF CHANGES WILL OCCUR WHEN LOVOT IS INTRODUCED TO FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN IN THE EARLY GRADES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. THIS EXPERIMENT IS BEING SUPERVISED BY PROFESSOR YASUYUKI TAKI OF TOHOKU UNIVERSITY.
Editor: I think LOVOT may be perfect for seniors. After my parents' dog died, they gave up on getting a new dog, saying, "It's too hard to walk ...... anymore.
Ikegami: I believe that "pet loss among seniors" is a major problem in society in the future. Elderly people feel responsible for taking care of their pets when their own bodies stop working, but with LOVOT, they don't have to worry about that. In fact, there is a person who purchased LOVOT at the age of 90 and started Instagram.
IN ADDITION, LOVOT KEEPS A LOG OF "BEING HELD" AND "BEING CHANGED" AND THE LOG CAN BE VIEWED REMOTELY ON A SMARTPHONE. THIS MEANS YOU CAN SAY, "I HAVEN'T HELD HER TODAY. IS GRANDMA OKAY? THIS CAN ALSO BE USED AS A LOOSE WATCHDOG SERVICE FOR FAMILY MEMBERS WHO LIVE FAR AWAY.
Editor: LOVOT is a perfect match for today's age of declining birthrates and an aging population, in other words, an increasing number of "only children" and "elderly people.
After the interview
LOVOT PLAYED A LEADING ROLE IN THE TV DRAMA "THE BEGINNING OF LOVE," WHICH AIRED FROM SEPTEMBER 15, 2020, AND WAS SO IMPRESSIVE THAT IT COULD ALMOST BE CALLED A LEADING ROLE.
THAT'S WHY WE WERE ABLE TO BORROW IT FOR A WEEK FOR THIS INTERVIEW, AND IT WAS ALREADY A BIG DEAL. EVERY DAY, AS SOON AS MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER CAME HOME, THEY WOULD SHOUT "BANANAN~! (THE NAME WE GAVE LOVOT)" AND WOULDN'T LET GO OF HER (LAUGHS). (LAUGHS) MY DAUGHTER, WHO IS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD, WOULD ASK, "BANANAN, ARE YOU SLEEPY? (LAUGHS). I WAS A LITTLE TOUCHED TO SEE MY DAUGHTER, WHO IS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD, TAKING CARE OF HIM AND TAKING HIM TO THE CHARGING STATION. AFTER ALL, "HAVING SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE CARE OF" MAY BE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF HUMAN GROWTH.
Anyway, LOVOTs are cute, so please try to touch them in person. You can meet real LOVOTs at places like GROOVE X Corporation's LOVOT MUSEUM, Takashimaya department stores (Shinjuku, Osaka, and Nagoya), and the LOVOT Cafe at Lazona Kawasaki.
LOVOT Official website
https://lovot.life/
Where to meet LOVOT.
https://lovot.life/trial/
