This ⅛ scale robotic 'TACHIKOMA' from Cerevo can move, talk and even learn

Cerevo's TACHIKOMA, a smart toy replica of the AI robotic weapons platform that appears in the anime "Ghost in the Shell" is fully mobile and can move around via it's own robotic feet and wheels. Users can also talk with it using the companion cloud-linked smartphone app.

TACHIKOMA is available for pre-order today at the Official Cerevo Store as well as Amazon.com for US$1799.00, (SPECIAL EDITION US$ 1999.00) and the product is currently scheduled to ship in June 2017. This is clearly not for everyone at that price range, but you can bet serious GitS fans are going to be drooling over this little thing.

At that price it better be a pretty amazing piece of kit, so let's take a look at just what this little thing can do. In total there are 21 motors mounted inside TACHIKOMA and they each move autonomously according to conversations it has with the user. Not only each leg but also parts such as both arms, pod, image sensor, etc. will move.

In addition, there is the option of operating TACHIKOMA via the companion smartphone application. Like the original, it can freely move by turning the running wheels on the bottom of each leg. Furthermore, by providing multiple action commands, it is possible to reproduce a variety of postures and a variety of emotional expressions that appear in the original anime by moving each leg joint or pod.

In order to make any answer theoretically possible like the original animation, 600 different responses from Sakiko Tamagawa, the voice-over actress of TACHIKOMAs in the original anime were recorded and combined with a voice recognition engine and voice synthesis engine.

You can talk with TACHIKOMA who will then respond with the same voice as in anime. This is the function all fans have dreamed of, TACHIKOMA recognizing spoken words and creates a suitable reply based on the question content. It is also possible to answer with everyday conversations such as "Good morning" or "I'm home" and have TACHIKOMA respond.

But since TACHIKOMA has an Internet connectivity feature it ca tell users the weather forecast and update them on what's on their Google Calendar schedule by simply asking. When asking TACHIKOMA "What is the schedule for today?", it will answer with a synthesized voice based on Sakiko Tamagawa's original, for example: "You will be meeting with Saito at 9:30!". And when asking for words that you don't know TACHIKOMA searches the internet and then answers.

But the most exciting thing is one of the most important features of TACHIKOMA --Reproducing parallelization. As in the original anime, each 1/8 TACHIKOMA is connected to the cloud, so when you show an object to the camera mounted in the image sensor, the object recognition engine in the cloud recognizes the object.

For example, show an apple to TACHIKOMA and ask "What is this?", it will answer "I know, it's an apple isn't it?" In addition, when user "A" tells TACHIKOMA, "an apple is sweet", TACHIKOMA understands this by using speech recognition technology and transmits the learned information "an apple is sweet" to the cloud, all other TACHIKOMAs then "synchronize" the information as new TACHIKOMA memories!

At a later date, if user "B" shows an object that can be recognized as apple to TACHIKOMA, it says, "I know, it's an apple right? An apple is sweet." This means that all users receive the information that TACHIKOMA has learned via synchronization.

How well this works is yet to be seen, but if it works like described this could be an incredible piece of kit! Imagine all the TACHIKOMA jacked into the cloud learning and expanding themselves. Hell, it's actually a bit scary, so it's probably a goof thing these things are 1/8 scale. 

If you want to learn more head over to Cerevo and remember that you can pre-order your own right now here: http://gstore.cerevo.com/tachikoma-standard-edition/