A 600-gram pocket version of Qoobo that adds a heartbeat and a microphone — and, with the microphone, quietly gives up the privacy argument that made the larger model welcome in care homes.
Petit Qoobo is the small sibling of Yukai Engineering's tailed cushion, unveiled at CES in January 2020 and put on general sale in November of that year. Yukai ran it through Japanese crowdfunding platform Campfire in March 2020, where it collected 2,671 percent of the target, then opened presales in June.
At 210 by 280 millimetres and roughly 600 grams it is a little over half the size and weight of the original, which changes what it is for: the first Qoobo sits on a sofa, this one goes in a bag and lives on a desk. Two things were added rather than removed. It has a faint simulated heartbeat, felt rather than heard, and its tail reacts not only to touch but to voices and ambient sound.
That second addition deserves stating plainly, because it reverses a genuine selling point. The original Qoobo has neither camera nor microphone, which is precisely why it is accepted in care facilities and hospital wards where a listening device would not be. Petit Qoobo needs a microphone to do what it does. It remains a self-contained toy with no app and no account, but it is no longer a robot that hears nothing. Battery life is unchanged at more than eight hours, and it sells for USD 150 in the manufacturer's global store.