This article was published on June 26, 2012

Meet Shimi, the interactive robotic speaker / smartphone dock that will knock your socks off


Meet Shimi, the interactive robotic speaker / smartphone dock that will knock your socks off

Tovbot, a personal robotics company that was founded by Georgia Tech, MIT, and IDC roboticists, is going to showcase a super cool piece of work at the upcoming Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco.

I’m talking about Shimi, a “Robotic Musical Companion” prototype, powered by an Android smartphone or iPhone, that knows how to dance to the beat, recognize gestures and facial expressions and is even able to read status updates from your Twitter or Facebook friends out loud.

Says Gil Weinberg, co-founder and CEO of Tovbot:

“Shimi is actually the product of nearly a decade of musical robotics research. We’re very excited about the opportunity to show the Google developer community what we’ve put together using the Android platform.”

So are we, Gil, so are we.

The bad news: expect the Shimi to hit the market no earlier than the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.

The good news: here are two preview videos guaranteed to blow your mind.

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