Fribo Companion Robot Will Help You Stay Connected With Friends

A new companion robot has been created called Fribo, specifically designed to listen to what goes on in your life and help you keep connected with your friends.

Created by researchers from Yonsei University and KAIST the social companion robot was presented HRI 2018 in Chicago and has been created by a team of researchers comprising of Kwangmin Jeong, Jihyun Sung, Haesung Lee, Aram Kim, Hyem Kim, Chanmi Park, Youin Jeong, JeeHang Lee, and Jinwoo Kim.

Fribo functions by listening for what its designers call “living noise,” made from things around your home that makes noise besides you. The robot’s voice recognition is minimal and it doesn’t record voices, so it’s much more private than something like the Amazon Alexa or Google Home personal assistance. Fribo has also been designed to be much smarter than either of the mentioned systems offering the ability to understand what’s going on in its environment by just listening.

According to Spectrum, Fribo can recognize noises like a vacuum cleaner motor running, a microwave turning on, a running washing machine, a refrigerator door opening or closing, noises from entrance doors or specific room doors, and more. Over time, with your help, it’s able to learn what new noises mean. The robot also has a ultrasonic sensor that it uses to detect whether you’re in the room or not, along with temperature, humidity, and ambient light sensors.

When a Fribo in your home hears a noise that it recognizes, it sends a message to another Fribo in your friend’s home, or even to an entire network of Fribos belonging to people you know:

As an example, let us assume one friend opened a refrigerator. When [Fribo] receives this event from the server, the robot starts to communicate this to the user by saying, “Oh, someone just opened the refrigerator door. I wonder which food your friend is going to have.”