Episode Details

It had been an interesting mix at the giant electronics show in Germany. There was a pocket-sized robot to cheer you up, a watch that can count your calories, and a phone designed specifically to keep children safe. They’re all part of a joint conference led by consumer electronics company Sharp. Sharp was one of the first brands to kick off the massive electronics show last September 3, and the company’s most eye-catching offering was the pocket-sized robot. It’s all quite different from the full-sized humanoids we have become used to seeing at these conferences. The AI-driven character first appeared on a phone—now you can hold it in your hand and talk to it, as Sascha Lange, Sharp's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, demonstrated. He said, “So MIA is 12 centimeters tall, has an integrated camera, and is connected to ChatGPT. It is programmed in a way that it can speak very…Oh, you can’t hear it. It’s programmed in a way that it speaks very emotionally and also moves very emotionally.” “And MIA is already available in Japan at a retail price of around 300 euros and in Taiwan around 400 euros. So, this is a robot, quite affordable, right? And also Japan, our colleagues in Japan, last week announced the male version because she's a lady; that's the girl. And also the male version, which is a little bit less friendly, more straight, and that would launch in December this year. And then we have the second concept, this is Leomay, that is a European project, where we are focusing less the emotional part of the robot, but more the assistant part, so how it can really support things in life.” Sharp also highlighted its calorie counting feature for the Karada Mate watch, which claims to track calories as the wearer eats. IFA opened to the public on Friday, September 4, and continued until September 8. This article was provided by The Associated Press.