What you are looking at is possibly the future of household communication, yes this congenial looking robot dubbed the Jeppe. It’s the latest brainchild to burgeon from the Nokia Research Centre Smart Spaces lab and was created so that researchers could “explore how we might accept a different breed of video communication in our homes that’s more compelling and breaks the mold of the traditional PC/webcam scenario”.

Created to be more of a robotic social pet, than a piece of “soulless hardware” the Jeppe features a two-way video camera, a digital compass sensor and sound sensor. The desingers intent is to give chat users a more relaxing and passive way of conferencing to remove the formal sensibilities associated with traditional video chat.

This particular Jeppe is controlled by a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, with a pre-defined set of six gestures to trigger movement, but this is a prototype, and as such is still evolving a system of control. The conceptual ideology behind the project however is far more complex. “the plan is that Jeppe can be remotely controlled via the Internet, move independently by knowing where he is and routes to other places, and gather up digital info from his surroundings and other devices, that Jeppe could then send to the person controlling him remotely via the web.” Catch the gallery and the video after the jump.

[via]