A Pixar Employee Creates Peek-A-Boo Robot That Acts Like A Baby

A Pixar Employee Creates Peek-A-Boo Robot That Acts Like A Baby

There is no denying that robots continue to take on more humanistic qualities. Just take for example the Japanesehumanoid robot Pepper that can understand how its human owner is feeling and develop its own unique personality.

However, for techies looking for their very own Chappie, a younger-minded and adorable bot, then look no further than this peek-a-boo playing robot created by a Pixar employee.

Pixar technical director Alonso Martinez designed and built the peek-a-boo playing robot named Mira, which acts differently when it's happy or sad.

Similarly to how a baby would react when playing the game, when Martinez hides his face, Mira becomes sad and changes color. However, once Martinez reveals himself, the bot bounces, excitedly responding like a real-life baby. Its colors change and it makes a chirping noise that makes it hard not to smile.

The project is meant to explore human-robot interactivity and emotional intelligence. To play the game of peek-a-boo, Mira uses face tracking technology. Over time, the humanoid robot will be able to understand more about the world and emotions, improving its ability to interact with people. Learning human emotions will only make its interaction more meaningful.

While Martinez hasn't revealed if he will bring this desk companion to consumers, we can only imagine playing peek-a-boo at work with this little bot for hours.

Watch Mira play peek-a-boo with its creator below.