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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."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 20 2016, @10:54PM
Use your context clues!
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @11:06PM
Is otaku the young, lonely, anime-obsessed person, or is it the stuff they obsess over?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 20 2016, @11:39PM
It's the person.
Here's the rest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku [wikipedia.org]
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=otaku [urbandictionary.com]
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @10:45AM
Maybe they're anime-obsessed and many are young, but who is to say they are necessarily lonely? Not everyone enjoys much social contact. Many people are introverted, and some are extremely introverted. Introverts are not necessarily lonely; they just have different interests than extroverts.