If you have to be away from your family frequently, traveling or just working more than you would like to, the team that create Bocco.Me wants to help you in the form of a little robot that senses when your family is around him and helps you stay in touch.

Both the “robot” and the app were designed with EXTREME simplicity in mind, as the team shared on its Kickstarter campaign page. Bocco.Me has just two buttons; one for recording of new messages to you and the other for playing messages that you sent to the device. The volume? You can control it in the cuttest possible way, by twisting his little nose! The projects have gotten quite a bit of press after its appearance at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The Los Angeles Times described it as a “Robot messenger connects parents and kids”. Very true!

How Does It Know We’re Close?

While Bocco.Me is small, what’s even smaller is Bocco.Me’s sensors, very discreet little Lego-sized devices that you attach near places you want Bocco.Me to know that your family members have been around, such as the front door of your house. Bocco.Me will then notify you that your loved ones have arrived home and that you can send them a message. When the message arrives, Bocco’s eyes get brighter and it starts shaking its head.

https://youtu.be/-_kqZnr8prM

The great thing about this feature is that your messages will be read out to them when they are around, not when they had to go to work, or school – or kindergarten even!

Type or Should, Both Will Work With Bocco.Me

While you can use Bocco.Me’s native iOS or Android app to send a voice message, you can use it discreetly by typing in your message into its mobile-messenger-like interface. On the other hand, your family members can send you messages by speaking directly to Bocco.Me, as if it was your telepathic buddy.

This makes it easy for your parents, children or grandparents to easily talk to you from afar! It’s great in situations where you work far from your kids or would not prefer your kids to use a smartphone just yet in order to stay in touch with you. It’s also a great device for blind or visually impaired users.

Bocco.Me’s Japanese Roots

The project was started by Yukai Engineering, a small robotics startup based in the Japan, specifically the beautiful city of Tokyo. With 5 years of experience in prototyping, product design, and mass production, it wasn’t hard to create a great product, but the team di have to work hard in order to make it not just usable, but also lovable. Looking at the way Bocco.Me looks at you, I’m sure you’d agree that they’ve succeeded.

Can I Order It Right Away?

Unfortunately, you can’t order and get it right away, but you can pre-order it! The project was actually on Kickstarter as I mentioned and managed to secure $27,037 to put it into production. It was in fact so lovable that Kickstarter’s own staff made it a “Staff pick”.

If you like Bocco.Me, feel free to preorder it from their official website for the price of $250! If you’re still not sure and want the technical details, here we go:

Main unit

• Dimensions: W90 x D55 x H195 millimeters
• Weight: 220 grams + AC/DC 120 grams
• Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth Low Energy
• Power: 100-240V AC adapter (UL/PSE/CE); type A (US/Japan) plug

Motion Sensor

• Power: Two AAA batteries (included)
• Battery life: one year with normal daily use
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth Low Energy
• Movement detection by a 3-axis acceleration sensor (mainly for doors, windows, drawers)
• Dimensions: W34 x D30 x H68 millimeters
• Weight: 27 grams without batteries; 54 grams with batteries

The Bocco.Me App

• Chat room: one or more users, one BOCCO, one or more sensors
• Voice recording
• Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• Text-to-speech
• iOS compatibility: iPhone 5/iPad Retina or later with iOS 8 or later
• Android compatibility: Android 4.4 or later