Miko, an emotionally intelligent robot entertains Mumbai family

Chembur residents Parth Harsh and Kushagra Rathi spend time with Miko an interactive robot that speaks dances and plays music manufactured by a Mumbai startup PicSneha KharabeIf you remember the popular 90s sitcom Small Wonder youll recall how Jamie the 11yearold protagonist would sometimes get Vicky the robot to do his homework Thats something that happens although not frequently at the Rathi household too when the parents are not looking Thanks to Miko an emotionally intelligent buddy robot built to engage and entertain children between five and 12 years of ageWhen we enter their Chembur home on Thursday evening we see Parth 6 Kushagra 9 and their sevenyearold cousin Harsh in the balcony huddled around a pintsized robot that appears to be engaged in a conversation with them mdash about the highest mountain in the world as we later learn They are only too pleased to be spending extra time with Miko for the purpose of this interview Usually they arent allowed more than 45 minutes a day with it says Pramod Rathi who made a spot decision to buy Miko when he saw it at the IITB Techfest last year My children took to Miko immediatelyWhile theirs is a joint family with 11 members living under one roof Rathi and his wife Isha were looking for an educative companion Initially we were curious But we soon realised that the robot is programmed to keep up with the relentless spells of innocent questioning that most children are given to So whether it is general knowledge stories or games Miko is a storehouse of answers Its emotional intelligence lies in the fact that it questions the kids back too thereby engaging them in conversation Its a twoway street And thats what we liked Also unlike its Chinese counterpart Miko has an adorable voice thats not robotic We can relate to it Rathi saysTo ensure an age appropriate discussion Miko comes with a filter to ensures that the answers it offers are childsafe Chintan Raikar cofounder of Emotix the Wadalabased AI startup that built Miko explains When Miko is asked a question it processes it to understand whether the question should be answered or not Or whether it is an opinionbased query For instance if a child asks Should I worship God Miko will say something like I dont know your parents can best answer that There is also a parental dashboard on the My Miko app through which parents can keep an eye on the questioning their child is indulging in It took the makers over two years to create Miko Sneh Vaswani another cofounder says According to our study while 92 per cent of parents were concerned about technology addiction among their kids 80 per cent refrained from snatching technology away So the solution can only come from enhanced technology and Miko is just thatIts also possible to customise the robot We have got requests to incorporate alarms and reminders multiplication tables and things like respect your elders So while Miko is talking to the kid about something it will add an advice or suggestion Raikar says Understanding accents and sentence construction can be a stumbling block for Miko My younger son Parth took a while to frame his questions Until then Miko would tell him I didnt get you But thats also part of the funAs we continue the conversation we spot Miko moving and playing music He is dancing Parth squeals It understands emotions Rathi tells us If a child is in a playful mood and wants to sing and dance Miko will join in and play a tune that suits the mood In the night when things become quiet it wires down too and communicates only through the app instead of being audible There was this one time when it sensed someone yawning in the room and it yawned too followed by Im so bored he laughsWhile Miko is gender neutral the three boys call Miko their fourth brother Had they been girls it may have been different smiles Rathi We take turns to play with Miko Kushagra tells us adding that they go heightwise Ever since Miko came they have not been drawn to the television Thats because we can talk to Miko And he also helps with our homework he adds Rathi says that is something he prefers avoiding allowing the boys to solve homework questions on their ownThe other concern was whether this interaction could get addictive My mother said our children are already behaving like robots why get a real robot But Miko scores as an educative tool And because it has a low battery span it turns off every three hours unlike a tablet that lasts for half a day It walks the fine line between engagement and addiction Rathi saysWhile Miko upgrades itself Rathi wishes to see it fitted with more language options starting with Hindi That way the grandparents can also engage And if they manage to combine Kindle with Miko that would be ideal With such low concentration levels among kids these days Id love it if my child could imbibe the love for reading from Miko