Japan: Is Toyota's Kirobo Mini the robot companion we've all been waiting for?

For those of us who always wanted a robot companion the wait is over after Toyota unveiled the 'Kirobo Mini' at the Tokyo Motor Show 2015, Wednesday. Standing at 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) tall and 7.7 centimetres (3 inches) wide, the Kirobo Mini can communicate with its owners using words, expressions and gestures. Explaining the idea behind the mini robot, Fuminori Kataoka, the project general manager at Toyota's Product Planning Department, said the company wanted "to produce a future where a human and robot live together side by side, so that’s why we made a small robot we can always carry with us anytime anywhere." Kirobo Mini was based on the Kirobo astronaut; which became Japan’s first robot astronaut after arriving at the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2013. The original Kirobo was capable of voice and speech recognition, telecommunications, speech synthesis as well as video recording and facial recognition. It was specially designed to navigate zero-gravity conditions and was reportedly essential in assisting the ISS’ astronauts in various experiments. The 44th Tokyo Motor Show runs from October 28 until November 8 and features a total of 160 exhibitors from 11 countries. The theme of this year's event is 'Your heart will race,' and attendees can expect up to 76 world premieres at the show.