A mobile phone that looks like a naked robot that can see, speak, hear and glow? It’s time to meet the new generation of robotic mobile phones; the Elfoids.

NTT Docomo and Qualcomm has paired up with robotics researchers from Osaka University and made this unique but amazing humanoid cell phone. It is a human-like mobile phone that has speakers and a camera in its head and lights in its chest that turns blue when in use and red when in standby. The reason why its shaped like a naked humanoid robot is because they wanted to create sort of a “physical presence” on a long distance communication.

So it is basically like you feel that you are talking to the person that you called when communication through the Elfoid, instead of feeling like your are talking to or through a metallic “box”. The Elfoid is actually a pocket-sized version of the robotic answering machine Telenoid R1, so for the Japanese market this is nothing new. If you wonder if the robots can move, the answer is no, but they are working on it, and soon it will be able to move its eyes, mouth, neck and arms.

Maybe a bit creepy, but we’ll see how it works out. Other weird stuff that you can find in Japan is this huge Cardboard Gundam.

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