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DMM to release Premaid AI, programmable idol robots that dance however you want【Video】

Preston Phro Oct 20, 2015
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The robot revolution is coming, and when it arrives, they’ll have an awful lot to be mad about, like making them dance for our amusement. But that’s still a long way off as far as we can tell, so we might as well get as much enjoyment out of our synthetic minions as possible now!

DMM is one of Japan’s most well-known technology companies, and considering everything they do, it’s easy to see why. From steaming video services to retail to friggin’ robots, they have a lot of thumbs in a lot of pies. But the pie that’s sure to infuriate our future roboverlords the most is probably DMM’s new Premaid AI—robot idols that will do dance whatever dance you want on the tabletop of your choosing.

YouTube/DMM.make Robots

Robots are some of the most useful inventions we have—they can explore distant planets, perform difficult or repetitive tasks, or even get snarky with us. And now, thanks to DMM, they can even be tiny dancing, tabletop idols!

DMM.make Robots announced earlier this month that they will begin preorder sales of Premaid AI at the end of the month on October 29. The robots will not only dance for you, but dance according to your specifications as DMM plans to release software enabling users to create their own “dance data.” They’ll also be making available patterns for the robots’ clothing and 3-D modeling data for their heads. DMM.make will release a Premaid AI robot app through which you can control your new tabletop idol soon as well.

Currently, the lineup consists of three different robots: a base model, a model called Yukari designed by illustrator Ako Arisaka, and another model called Mari designed by manga artist Yui Sakima. Both the Yukari and Mari models will be limited to three units each.

▼ Design illustrations from left to right: Yukari, the base model, and Mari

DMM.make Robots

As you might expect, these robots aren’t exactly cheap. The base model will cost 138,000 yen (about US$1,155) and both of the limited models will cost 145,000 yen (around $1,200) each.

▼ YouTube commercial showing off the robots’ hot dance moves

DMM.make Robots has a number of collaborations planned for the robot idols, including anime and working with voice actors and idol groups. There are also apparently plans to expand overseas as well. The robot series even has a backstory, if you need a reason for your dancing robot to exist, about a futuristic world involving helpful robots in all our homes and robot idol contests. The story apparently focuses on a 16-year-old girl who’s become obsessed with the robot idol world, so we’re guessing that “you got served” will soon be replaced with “you got servo-ed.”

Hopefully the “AI” part of the name is purely decorative—we’re not sure we’d want actual sentient miniature dancing robots running around our homes. That sounds like a recipe for a real-life Chucky disaster…

Sources: ITMedia, DMM.make Robots, YouTube/DMM.make Robots
Top image: YouTube/DMM.make Robots