Keepon: an autism research robot that a dance video turned into a $40 toy

A snowman shape instead of a humanoid

Keepon is a small robot that Hideki Kozima developed at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). From 2003 it was used to study nonverbal interaction with children. Kozima had earlier studied children with Infanoid, a robot shaped like a human upper body, and the children found it overwhelming. So Keepon was made as simple as possible, a snowman shape of two stacked balls. Four motors let it turn its head, nod, lean and bounce. Cameras in its eyes and a microphone in its nose send what it perceives to a therapist. The research version cost about $30,000.

A dance video in 2007, a $40 toy in 2011

Marek Michalowski of Carnegie Mellon joined Kozima in Japan in 2006 and programmed Keepon to dance to the beat of music. In March 2007 he posted a video of it dancing to Spoon’s “I Turn My Camera On,” which reached 2.6 million views. That August Keepon starred in the music video for Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah.” The two founded BeatBots in 2007. The video’s popularity led to a toy version. In 2011 the UK toy company Wow! Stuff released My Keepon for $40, sold in the US only at Toys "R" Us. Part of the proceeds went toward sending research-grade Keepon Pro robots to autism researchers and therapists.

Children who looked the robot in the eye more than people

Kozima reported that autistic children made more eye contact with Keepon than with people. The children also touched it and cared for it more often. In a 2009 paper the researchers wrote that with children with developmental disorders such as autism, “we have observed interactive behaviors that suggest Keepon's design is effective in eliciting a motivation to share mental states.” In 2011, though, MIT Technology Review pointed out that clinical research had not yet confirmed these effects.

A simple body that worked in the lab and the toy aisle

Keepon was designed to convey attention and emotion with a small body that has only eyes and a nose. That simplicity let children approach it easily, and its dancing reached people outside the lab too. Kaspar, elsewhere in this archive, is another autism research robot whose expressions were deliberately reduced. Keepon, however, went on to become a $40 toy and sent part of the proceeds back into research.

Where can a form with fewer features convey more to people?

What we haven’t confirmed

• How many My Keepon toys sold and when sales ended
• Whether Keepon Pro is still sold or used for research
• Whether controlled studies later confirmed its effects with autistic children
• Its exact height (sources give about 20 cm, and 27.5 cm including the base)