A ton of thought went into the clever device, which actually has some heartwarming goals.

Few things in life provide that special mixture of calm reassurance and energizing warmth like going for a long walk hand-in-hand with your sweetheart. But as a group of engineering researchers (Koshiro Shiraki, Toru Notsumata, Moeka Miki, and Takeru Mushika) from Japan’s Gifu University point out, “For some people, finding a girlfriend is very difficult.”

So the quartet set out to create a method for people to “experience holding your girlfriend’s hand more easily than by finding a girlfriend,” and the result is the robot shown in this video, called Osampo Kanojo (“Walk Girlfriend”), or, to use its designated English name, My Girlfriend in Walk.

At first glance, it might just look like a glove or mannequin forearm. Those wouldn’t provide your senses of touch, sound, and even smell with the enjoyable sensations of walking with a girlfriend, though, and so the Osampo Kanojo has no fewer than seven key design points.








The protype is designed as a stand-in for a woman’s hand, it seems like the system could easily be adapted to replicate a man’s hand with a more substantial outer coating and substitute fragrances, like cologne, barbeque charcoal, or motor oil. And while it’d be easy to write Osampo Kanojo off as yet another attempt to create a virtual girlfriend for those who’re afraid of trying to find a human one, the development team says one of their goals for the invention is for it to comfort those who’re living isolated lifestyles during the coronavirus pandemic. Another is to create an impetus for those working/attending classes from home to get regular exercise, and those are both admirable aspirations for the device.

Source: Virtual Reality Society of Japan via IT Media via Jin
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