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posted by janrinok on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the more-money-than-sense dept.

Welcome to the future:

The future is apparently here. And it's creepier than we ever imagined—even when we were playing around with tethering Teddy Ruxpin to the Internet. A Japanese company called Vinclu ("a company that makes crazy things and supports crazy people") is now taking pre-orders from Japan and the United States for a new interactive, artificial-intelligence driven home automation system. Called Gatebox, the new Internet-of-Things product takes Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, Spike Jonze's film Her , and the "holographic" anime characters of Vocaloid concerts to their unified natural conclusion.

Wait, what?

Gatebox, priced at ¥321,840 (about $2,700 US), is squarely targeted at young lonely salarymen and all brands of anime-obsessed otaku—promising the experience of "living with your favorite character." The size of a home coffee-maker, with a footprint no larger than a sheet of A4 printer paper, the device's main feature is a clear projection tube that displays a computer-animated avatar for the AI's "character." Vinclu apparently is planning multiple possible personalities for Gatebox—which, as part of the device's backstory, is a gateway to the dimension the character lives in.

A company like this could release the first strong AI product (kawaii slave?).

Beginner's definition of "waifu" for the uninitiated.

Update: Another article indicates that "[There's also] HDMI and PC inputs to allow the owner to make their own modifications and create their own characters."


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:22PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:22PM (#443903) Journal

    That's interesting. Machine learning wipes out a lot of lower-level jobs, and then the unemployed become mechanical turks, providing voice acting and other responses for the tiny holographic waifus. Maybe a button can be added to the base to "vote down" inadequate responses. The waifu will groan ("itai!"), but the mechanical turk will get an electric shock from a shock collar.

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:34PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:34PM (#443912)

    will get an electric shock from a shock collar

    Classic "old" movie quote or future Amazon Turk 2.0 job requirement:

    It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again