Sophia, created by Hanson Robotics, is making strides in the robotic world as she gets more intelligent after each human encounter. But now she’s got a “mini-me” called Little Sophia, a toy robot that serves as an educational tool and home assistant catered toward children.
Little Sophia is approximately 36 cm tall with an expressive face just like her big sister, although Little Sophia’s face isn’t as realistic as big Sophia’s.
Little Sophia can track and recognize faces, walk and dance, while also responding to voice prompts and commands. She can even tell jokes. Her main focus, though, is that she is a programmable, educational companion for kids, and the company hopes she will inspire children to learn about coding, AI, science, technology, engineering, and math through an interactive, human-robot experience.
Using an accompanying app, users can program the robot using Blockly and Python programs.
Although Little Sophia’s voice isn’t as animated as her facial expressions, she can still be animated when it comes to clothing. An augmented reality function allows Little Sophia to dress in different hats and costumes for Snapchat selfies.
Little Sophia was designed for children who are ages 7 to 13, and the company hopes this miniature version of Sophia will help ignite an interest for children in STEM-related fields.
Filed Under: Product design
