Originally set to close last weekend, the team for Dr. Cynthia Breazeal’s family robot, Jibo, has extended its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, and has reached $1,747,432 from 4,084 backers. The project originally set out to raise only $100,000, but quickly hit the spotlight after reaching $400,000 during the first days on the crowdfunding giant.
Jibo brings the vision of Dr. Breazeal, the pioneer of social robotics and human-robot interaction, into the home for the first time. As an associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, where she directs the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab. Breazeal has long had a vision to not only bring robots into everyday life, but also to make technology more humanized and bring intelligence and utility with heart into the home.
The family robot helps to bring technology to life with personal and emotive engagement. Unlike the home gadgets and other tech, Jibo fits in more like one of the family. As soon as you bring Jibo home, he will start to learn about you. He will recognize the different voices and faces in your family and as he interacts with you. Jibo’s personality and intelligence will come to life through various skills that provide companionship and help you to coordinate and manage daily activities, as well as stay close to those you love even when you’re apart.
Key features of Jibo are:
- Sight: Two hi-res cameras recognize and track faces, capture photos, and enable immersive video calling.
- Hearing: 360 microphones and natural language processing let you talk to Jibo from anywhere in the room.
- Learn: Artificial intelligence algorithms learn your preference to adapt and fit into your life.
- Help: Like a personal assistant, Jibo proactively helps you, to make everyday tasks simpler and easier.
- Speaks: Hand-free reminders and messages, so you’ll never forget and can always be in touch.
- Relate: Communicates and expresses using natural social and emotive cues so you understand each other better.
During a recent update, the Breazeal and team wrote, “Thank you to everyone who has expressed support for Jibo during our 30-day campaign! We are touched by your messages and are deeply appreciative of your contributions. We are extending another 30 days by overwhelming popular request so that more people have the opportunity to join our growing Jibo Family!”
Sharing details about the new stretched goal, they noted, “As some may know, we are currently stretching to raise $1.7M. By popular request, the associated stretch goal is FREE to ALL once achieved. We shall unlock the Black Jibo and the Storyteller Pack.”
The campaign is set to close on September 14th.
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