????Jibo可以實現一些功能，比如給小孩子講故事、利用面部識別技術抓拍家庭照片等等。它也可以用Skype打電話，另外某些需要用手機完成的通訊也可以通過他來完成。Jibo是為家庭設計的，它可以放在桌子或工作臺上。在一段展示視頻中，當一個男人下班回家時，Jibo立即向他問好，然后問他需要不需要叫中餐外賣。在另一幕中，一個女人正在揉面。這時Jibo提醒她，她的女兒很快要來接她外出購物。那個女人回答道：“謝謝你，Jibo。”和《摩登家庭》里簡?杰特森對Rosie所說的話沒什么區別。

????Jibo可以被視為目前的“遠程呈現”機器人的下一步發展方向。所謂的“遠程呈現”機器人就是把一臺手機或平板電腦（也就是機器人的“大腦”）連接到一個移動基座上。比如，Romo無非就是給你的手機安裝了一個橡膠“坦克底盤”，而且它還需要另一臺平板或手機作為遙控器。Ubooly則是一款兒童玩具，父母可以把他們的手機插到毛絨玩具的肚子里，讓它陪孩子玩。遠程呈現機器人Double，本質上就是把iPad放在一輛賽格威兩輪車(Segway)上面，讓身處異地的人們覺得他們親自參加會議或在辦公室走來走去。它有點像英劇《超級麥克斯》(Max Headroom)里的主人公，但老實說，實際使用時，它看起來真是蠢萌蠢萌的。

????Jibo也可以和智能手機一起工作，但布雷西亞決定給予它一個屬于自己的大腦，而不是完全依賴智能手機。她認為智能手機會限制它的能力。事實證明，人們并不喜歡把自己的手機放在一個機器人身上，而是喜歡一直把手機拿在手上。

????目前還不知道，這究竟是不是一個明智的決定，這樣做能否給Jibo帶來好銷量。但對這個問題最有發言權的人，可能還是Jibo的發明者布雷西亞。早在麻省理工學院(MIT)讀書時，布雷西亞就把她的整個職業生涯奉獻給了社交型機器人。她最初不明白為什么美國國家航空航天局（NASA）可以把機器人送上火星，卻不能把機器人送進地球上的千家萬戶。后來她究其根源，覺得這是因為機器人在設計上缺乏社交性的緣故。后來布雷西亞設計了她的第一款專門針對小孩子的社交機器人Kismet。從那時起，她發表了不計其數的關于社交型機器人的論文。2010年，她還在TED大會上針對這個課題發表了一篇演講。她認為，人們會像跟真人溝通一樣與仿人型機器人進行交流。而能夠傳遞感性信號的機器人，可以提高人們的代入感、參與感和協作性，這是缺少人性化因素的工作機器人所做不到的。

????根據國際機器人聯合會（International Federation of Robotics）統計，2012年，全球共售出大約300萬臺家用和個人用途的服務型機器人，銷售額達12億美元。該組織預測稱，到2016年，全球將賣出2200萬臺機器人。

????布雷西亞表示，Jibo有意地沒有設計成人的外型。Jibo的目標是創建她所謂的“擬人體驗”，因為她認為：“那才是讓人之所以成為人的東西。”試圖模仿人類外觀的機器人不免科幻色彩太濃了。

????Jibo can perform a number of functions. He can tell children’s stories and snap family photos using face recognition. He can place Skype calls and handle communications for which you would normally use a phone. Jibo is meant to stay in the home, perched on a table or countertop, and a demo video shows him greeting a single man when he comes home from work and offering to order Chinese takeout. In another scene, Jibo is hanging out while a woman kneads bread. He chimes in to remind her that her daughter is picking her up soon. “Thanks, Jibo,” the woman responds, not unlike Jane Jetson talking to Rosie.

????Jibo can be considered the next logical step past today’s “telepresence” robots, which work only by connecting a smartphone or tablet—a brain, if you will—to a mobile base. For example, Romo augments your cell phone with rubber tank treads, though it requires a tablet or another phone to serve as a remote controller. Ubooly is a plush children’s toy in which parents can insert their cell phone for playtime. The Double telepresence robot, essentially an iPad on top of a Segway, allows people to feel physically present in meetings and move around the office when they’re working remotely. It’s a bit like Max Headroom on a broomstick and, to be frank, a little silly in practice.

????Jibo works with smartphones, but Breazeal chose to give the robot its own brain, rather than rely on a smartphone. The smartphone would have limited the robot’s capabilities, she says. As it turns out, people don’t like to put their phones into a robot anyway. They prefer to keep it on hand, Breazeal says.

????Whether that can make a difference—or translate to sales of in-home robots—is up for debate, but if anyone can figure this out, it’s Jibo’s inventor. Breazeal has dedicated her career to social robots, starting as a grad student at M.I.T. When she was younger, she didn’t understand why NASA was sending robots to Mars but they still hadn’t arrived in people’s homes. It’s because those robots weren’t designed to be social, she reasoned. Breazeal went on to build the first a social robot, which was called Kismet and intended for children. She has since published numerous studies on social robotics and in 2010 delivered a TED talk on the subject. People respond to human-like robots the same way they respond to people, she argued, and robots with the ability to convey expression increase empathy, engagement, and collaboration among people in a way that a robot with a flat demeanor cannot.

????An estimated 3 million service robots, which are intended for personal and domestic use, were sold in 2012, according to the International Federation of Robotics, representing sales of $1.2 billion. The IFR predicts 22 million robots to be sold through 2016.

????Jibo is purposely designed to not resemble a human, Breazeal says. The goal is to create what she calls a humanized experience, “because that’s what empowers people,” she says. Robots that try to look like human beings end up being a little too science fiction.