Gadgetory

if you ever dreamed of having your very own BB robot best friend Toyota has just the buddy to make your dreams come true say hello to kirobo mini a 4 inch tall companion robot that can engage in casual conversations that is if you speak Japanese Toyota is selling it across Japan next year and it'll cost about 400 dollars the pint-sized animated Pal fits in the palm of your hand and requires a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone and there's a special app for him that costs about three dollars a month the robot is able to recognize people's facial expressions so we can tell if you're upset or happy and even follow you to keep eye contact kirobo also learns from past conversations and it can gather information from your connected car he may even know when you're leaving the car and plead for you to not leave him behind this is a mini version of a robot that was sent into space three years ago the first kirobo was hanging out at the International Space Station for 18 months making small talk with the station's first Japanese commander kirobo was developed by the University of Tokyo and roboticist emoticon Takahashi along with the help from various groups like Toyota the idea was to create a robot that could be a companion for humans it's not going to advanced enough to be called artificial intelligence and he may not be practical but he sure excels in cuteness I'm Bridget Carey and you can keep up with the latest tech news at cnn.com slash you