Best known for its Qooba cat pillow, Yukai Engineering has made a name for itself with some of the strangest little robots around. Who could forget, for example, Amagami Ham Ham, whose sole purpose is to gnaw on fingers, offering a “somewhat pleasing sensation.” At CES 2025, Yukai unveiled its latest, Mirumi, and it follows in those furry footsteps.
The little robot is, in essence, a furball that mounts to a purse, “delight[ting] bystanders” as it “spontaneously turns its head to steal a glance at a nearby person.” Much like Ham Ham’s finger munching, Yukai found inspiration in the form of infants.
“Designed to re-create people’s joyful experiences of noticing a human baby as he/she tries to interact with them,” the company writes, “Mirumi moves its head in several different ways to express its curiosity, bashfulness and other baby-like qualities and emotions.”
The firm says the product was dreamt up during an in-house “Make-a-Thon.” Its genesis is the Yokai: mischievous supernatural spirits found in Japanese folklore.
The bot scans its surroundings, using a combination of motion and proximity sensing, as well as taps and movement of the bag onto which it is mounted. Yukai describes the different modes:
- Curiosity: Looks around once the bag begins to move
- Inquisitiveness: Turns its head to look at a detected person or object
- Bashfulness & Cautiousness: Turns back its head to hide the face when a person/object suddenly appears or when being tapped on the body
- Rejection: Shakes its head to say “no” when jiggled
- Comfort: Turn its head to look around again when remaining uninterrupted for a while
