Keepon

The Keepon robot was designed by Dr. Hideki Kozima for child development research and autism therapy. I completed my PhD research at Carnegie Mellon University with a thesis on rhythmic human-robot social interaction that primarily used Keepon as a research platform. After creating a few viral videos of Keepon dancing, we started BeatBots to commercialize Keepon and to expand our robotic character design practice.

My Keepon, developed in partnership with UK-based Wow! Stuff, was a toy version of Keepon Pro. In its touch mode, it responds to pokes, pats, and tickles with a rich variety of emotional movements and sounds. In its dance mode, it hears the beat in music or clapping and dances in synchronized rhythm. My Keepon is also hackable by connecting an Arduino: code is at Github, along with surgical instructions.

Please visit the Keepon Pro and My Keepon sites for more information.