We are pleased to announce that Tohoku Electric Power Co. launched today “Yorisou BOCCO (BOCCO in Your Corner)” a new personal assistance program featuring Yukai Engineering’s flagship communication robot, BOCCO. The program is one of Tohoku Electric’s “Yori, Sou, Chikara (+ONe)” services that are designed to fulfill people’s various personal needs and improve the quality of their lives. We invite you all to subscribe to “Yorisou BOCCO” services by signing up for it at: https://yorisou.bocco.me/
BOCCO is a tabletop-sized family communications robot. By using the BOCCO robot and its app, you can easily exchange voice and text messages with family members, monitor your home environment and control smart appliances and devices. For example, BOCCO can send an alert to your phone when your child comes home from school and opens the door of your home. The robot can also read your pre-recorded messages — such as reminders to take medications — at scheduled times.
“Yorisou BOCCO (BOCCO in Your Corner)” is aimed to give people peace of mind by enabling them to “talk” and “connect” with their loved ones from anywhere at any time and stay informed about their needs. Before the launching of this program, Tohoku Electric piloted BOCCO in a smart living service program that began in July 2018.
What you can do with BOCCO
EASY MESSAGING — For messaging, you can type or voice-record your message on the BOCCO app on your phone and send it to the robot. BOCCO makes a sound to notify your family when your message arrives and reads it out loud to them in its cute voice. Alternatively, they may also push the “play” button on the robot to listen to a voice message.
HOME MONITORING — The app also notifies you when the robot receives new information from sensors. For example, you will receive an alert via the app on your phone when your child comes home and opens the door. You can combine several different types of BOCCO sensors to keep an eye on the room temperature, control lights and do much more.
REMOTE FAMILY CARE — All these features are designed to help you stay informed about what’s happening at home and enjoy communications with your loved ones wherever you are. The robot is particularly useful for remotely checking in on your loved ones, including children at home and aging parents who live by themselves.
TASK AUTOMATION — In addition, you can select BOCCO Channels of your choice in the app to have the robot automatically perform a wide range of tasks, including reading out weather forecasts and the latest headlines in the news, waking you up at a set time, and reminding you about your schedule.
AWARDS:
BOCCO has won many awards, including:
Good Design Award (Japan, 2015)
Kids Design Award (Japan, 2016)
Amazon Educational Toy Award (Japan, 2017)