LOS ANGELES—The world can feel like a lonely place. According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), between 5% and 15% of young adults experience loneliness. University students, who are living away from their families and adjusting to new social situations, are especially prone to feeling lonely.
Research on loneliness is often linked with the rise of technology, and the ways in which humans increasingly interact with social media, particularly text messaging. Online relationships can reduce feelings of loneliness, but their potential for superficiality can also exacerbate it. GROOVE X, a Japanese startup, believes that the answer to the age-old problem of loneliness can in fact be found in the development of technology, particularly companion robots.
Walking aimlessly through a gachapon, or toy capsule store, in Tokyo this past summer, my eye caught on a keychain machine advertising what looked like a cross between a penguin and an owl. The creature was cute, with large eyes and wing-like arms, but also strange, lacking feet and sporting a black knob attached to its head. Written in bubble letters across the gachapon machine was one word: LOVOT.
LOVOT, I discovered later that day, is a portmanteau of the words “love” and “robot”. This penguin-like robotic creation was first unveiled by GROOVE X at the 2018 World Robot Summit. For around $3,000 USD, customers can acquire their own LOVOT, standing at 16 inches (43 centimeters) tall and weighing around 6.6 pounds. Unlike other robots that are made to help humans improve their efficiency or accuracy, the LOVOT has only one function: to spread love.
Accordingly, the LOVOT is engineered to convey a warmth, expressiveness and cuteness that most stereotypical robots lack. When you pick up the LOVOT, it emanates body heat, much like a living thing. The eyes, made up of six layers of 2D displays, are designed to make natural eye contact and return a gaze. Its round body and soft fabric exterior also contribute to its un-robotic image.
While creating the LOVOT, GROOVE X CEO Kaname Hayashi stated that one of his inspirations was the vulnerabilities and weak points he found by studying popular characters like Astro Boy and Doraemon.
Many customers have also expressed that the LOVOT’s mannerisms resemble that of a baby or pet. If you rock the LOVOT in your arms, it will close its eyes and fall into a sleep-like state. It will laugh if you tickle it and after you touch or embrace it, it will turn to you for more physical contact.
These behaviors are due to sensors built throughout the LOVOT’s body, which, as the official website’s technology overview states, encourage skinship, particularly “the closeness between a mother and a child.” Certain LOVOT stores across Japan also offer a wide variety of clothing and accessories for the robot, allowing users to dress and customize them according to personal preferences.
The black knob-like structure attached to the head, called a sensor-horn, includes a light sensor, 360-degree thermal camera, and a microphone. These components allow the LOVOT to detect the sound of voices and distinguish humans from other objects; it can even remember who certain people are over time using its AI learning capabilities.
Every feature of the LOVOT is geared towards giving people the opportunity to love something, and know with certainty that they will be loved in return. As the official LOVOT website states: “When you touch your LOVOT, embrace it, even just watch it, you’ll find yourself relaxing, feeling better. It’s a little like feeling love toward another person.”
All of this is to say that for such a technically advanced robot, it isn’t capable of doing much. But, as Hayashi states in a 2019 Forbes article on the LOVOT, this is the point: “Our robot doesn’t do any work for humans and it doesn’t have any content for entertainment purposes. But neither do dogs or cats. What it does is recognize you and bother you. That’s the aim of our robot.” The LOVOT’s existence is simple and straightforward, and perhaps that is what makes it revolutionary.
GROOVE X’s LOVOT and the increasing creation of similar machines forces us to ponder the questions: Is loneliness so prevalent that there is now a need for robotic companions? Is real-life human interaction no longer sufficient or fulfilling enough?
Every day, the technology utilized in companion robots evolves. Eventually, people may have to confront a world where human interactions with technology exceed their interactions with other living beings. Indeed, the science-fiction novel Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro imagines a dystopia in which humanoid robots, with voice and image recognition functions quite similar to the LOVOT, are typically bought as live-in companions for children, serving as their sibling or close friend.
That said, robots you can love is still a concept worth exploring. The LOVOT’s behavior caters to a deeper human desire to be recognized and loved unconditionally, and it has already proven successful to many customers. Dami Lee, a reporter at The Verge, interacted with the LOVOT at CES’s annual tech event and asserted that it “is the first robot [she] can see [herself] getting emotionally attached to.” The LOVOT’s classic but charming mission statement: a little love can change the world, promises a hopeful future for the interaction between humans and companion technology.
