Yukai and TEPCO Ventures to Pilot Use of BOCCO Robot for tepcotta Child Monitoring Services

 TOKYO (Dec. 18, 2018) – YUKAI Engineering Inc., a Tokyo-based robotics startup known for creating robots that bring joy to life, and TEPCO Ventures, Inc., have announced they will pilot the use of Yukai’s family robot, BOCCO, as an interface for tepcotta, which is TEPCO’s child-monitoring system. The pilot combines BOCCO’s instant messaging and IoT features with tepcotta’s location services featuring otta, a beacon tracker that works as an emergency whistle.  The pilot will run from late December through March 31, 2019 to gather feedback from about 100 tepcotta subscribers.

 

BOCCO is a family communication robot that enables people to talk with their families and monitor home activities while away from their homes. For example, when a child comes home, BOCCO would detect the opening of the door and sends a notification to their parent’s phone. Users can also exchange such messages as, “I’m home” and “How was your day?” via the robot.

 

tepcotta features an IoT whistle, otta, which people can use to track their loved ones’ whereabouts. Users can also receive notifications when family members wearing the whistle pass through the checkpoints that they pre-selected.

 

“BOCCO can help families stay in touch and keep their children safe. By marrying the best of the both services, we can offer great monitoring services to bring together not only families but also the local communities,” said Yukai Engineering CEO Shunsuke Aoki.

About YUKAI

YUKAI Engineering is a robotics startup that develops and sells products that make the world more “yukai” (fun) place to live. YUKAI’s award-winning products include Necomimi, a headband with fake cat ears that move in sync with the user’s brain waves (selected for Time magazine’s “The World’s 50 Best Innovations 2011” list), and BOCCO, a communication robot that keeps family members in touch with each other.