Gizmodo: Nabaztag

Nabaztag's RFID Mirror Does as Your Gadgets Command

Andi Wang — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:00:13 EDT

The Nabaztag, known for reading you the news and playing back podcasts, has come out with a new kind of reader: The Violet Mirror RFID reader.

Designed to be "so simple a two-year old can use it," this RFID Mirrorwhich comes with a mirror, two programmable micro-rabbits and three Ztamps RFID tagsis supposed to recognize different objects you show to it and also perform certain tasks you've assigned to the Ztamps via USB on your computer. For example, waving your umbrella over the mirror will make it tell you the weather, scanning your wallet in front of it will get your bank-statements e-mailed to you, or flashing that photo of you and that hot cheerleader will automatically send a text-message to your wife to let her know you'll be late for dinner. [ThinkGeek via i4u via Endgadget]

ETRI's KOBIE and RABIE: Best Robot Friends Since Cartman (Video)

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:20:00 EST

KOBIE and RABIE are networked robots designed by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). They are essentially sensor and motor arrays whose varied "emotions" are processed on a nearby PC. Because of the wireless connectivity, they deliver greater variety of response with less overhead within the little koala bear doll or creepy rabbit-Pac-Man shell that make up their bodies.

ETRI built KOBIE and RABIE as "Mental Commitment Robots,'' geared to help mentally ill people by providing psychological comfort. When you poke KOBIE the robotic koala, he rolls over and stares grumpily into your face, until he recognizes you. If you hit him once, he will be frightened, but if you hit him several times, his surprise turns to fear. "He can calculate whether you like him or not," says a head of research at ETRI.

KOBIE's target audience is the elderly, and its koala form was chosen both because it is cuddly and because koalas are known to be lazy, so KOBIE's lack of quick motor skills would be less noticed. In spite of this deficiency, he is "by far the most advanced robotic pet made in Korea," according to the the Korea Times. KOBIE's less comfortingly named brother RABIE, the world's second known networked rabbit, is aimed at children, and it uses clear emoticons to express itself, rather than more nuanced facial ticks. He also doubles as a nannycam, transmitting video of his playtime to PCs and mobile phones.

ETRI should probably work on the names, though. It's a little creepy for me to think of giving my kids RABIEsand letting my grandma sleep with KOBIE. [The Korea Times; Akihabara News; Video from B2B Story]

Nabaztag Gets Upgraded, Still Only Semi-Cool

Travis Hudson — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:15:45 EST

That Wi-Fi eating rabbit, Nabaztag, is at it again with some upgrades. Some of the highly touted upgrades includes a speaker and microphone (in the form of a belly buttong, how cute) for two-way communication. The Nabaztag can also play podcasts and web radio. Anybody actually own one of these? Are they worth it, or does the cool factor wear off after the first week and it just becomes annoying? Travis Hudson

Product Page
Press Release

Netoy Tries to Kick Nabaztag to the Curb

Travis Hudson — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:20:58 EST

That floppy eared desktop bunny, Nabaztag, is trying to be dethroned by another completely pointless desktop-widget device. Enter the Netoy. Netoy is an 802.11g-compatible device with a small 1.8-inch screen. He can display music track information, read news, weather, e-books arms and being an overall general nuisance all while flailing its arms. Travis Hudson

Netoy WiFI robot flails the news [Slashgear]

Nabaztag/tag, The World's Smartest Rabbit

kthompson — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 14:22:09 EST

A lesson in product naming conventions: your first generation should be something with no easily discernable relationship to the item, like Nabaztag, the ambient Wi-fi rabbit gizmo. Subsequent generations should further complicate the already mysterious name, like Nabaztag/tag, the older and wiser version of said rabbit.

You may remember our coverage a few weeks ago in which we discovered that people weren't exactly falling in love with Nabaztag. We would like to reconsider that notion and welcome our new long-eared overlords. The new bunny is equipped with smell detection, so it can detect individual scents (like fear) and take an appropriate action (going for your jugular). They've also removed the 45-second speech limit, so your lagomorphic companion can serenade you all day long. $179.95 for a soul-eating rabbit? That's a steal! Karson Thompson

Nabaztag/tag [via I4U News]

CNET Writer Gets Nabaztag, Fails to Fall In Love

gizmodocontributor — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:56:43 EDT

CNET writer Daniel Terdiman is a cruel, heartless sort of dude: he got a Nabaztag (one of those electronic bunnies that reads you the news and wiggles its ears), but completely failed to fall in love with the floppy eared technological marvel:

I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be... Spoken messages from fellow bunny owners are fun. Even watching LapinLED do "tai chi" at random times was kind of neat...But ultimately, that's all there is. This is a $150 toy. It flashes. It speaks. But it's a novelty. And despite my initial excitement, I find myself a little underwhelmed.

If you want to send him some bunny love to put him back on track, his Nabaztag is called LapinLED and you can send messages here. Just don't send any rude messages: the idea of a cute electronic bunny shouting expletives across the CNet offices is just plain wrong. Richard Baguley