The technology in our homes takes on a wide array of jobs: playing music, turning lights on and off and brewing coffee. One of the promises of the internet of things is that all of them could one day communicate, creating smarter homes that anticipate and meet our needs with minimal effort. There are already systems for bringing connected devices into one central control center, but most of them resemble the remote controls we have used for years to manage our TVs and stereos. Siri has a voice, but does little to convince us that it is more than a computer talking. Jibo, the first robot by a Cambridge, Mass., startup with the same name, is built to bring a body and voice to our electronics. CEO Cynthia Breazeal, who is also director of the Personal Robots Group at MIT Media Lab, put years of work in social robotics into Jibo, resulting in a device that is meant to hit us exactly where we are most human: our emotions.
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