This furry clip-on robot is the strangest thing I’ve seen at this or any other CES
- Mirumi is the latest strange robot from Yukai Engineering
- It hangs on your bag
- It can “react”
Gadgets that provoke comments like “Why?” and “Is that thing staring at me?” are either the best thing about CES 2025 or the worst. Mirumi, a furry robot that wraps around a bag or backpack strap and watches friends, family and strangers, is one such gadget.
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Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Yukai Engineering, a company responsible for the furry therapeutic pillow with a Qoobo tail and the fingertip-chewing Amagami Ham Ham. In this case, the company describes Mirumi as “a mascot robot that spontaneously turns its head to glance at a nearby person.” Yes, that sounds great.
If it’s any consolation, the robot with its puffy gray (also in pink) body, round furry head and googly eyes looks adorable. In fact, it would resemble a little gray chick if it weren’t for those strangely long arms that you use to wrap around your handbag and backpack straps.
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Even though Mirumi looks like a stuffed animal, he is packed with technology. It has sensors to detect people and objects and the motorized head can rotate to “look at it”. The sensors also detect movement. It all works together to create a range of emotional responses, and much of it is designed to make Mirumi react the way a baby or toddler in your arms might to friends, strangers and unfamiliar objects.
Mirumi can express curiosity – essentially the looking around action activated by movement. If a person is detected nearby, the head turns to look at it. He may also mimic shyness and hide his head in your arm.
If you irritate Mirumi by shaking him, the little robot will turn its head from side to side to express its displeasure.
There were no details on pricing or availability at launch, but based on the prices of some of Yukai Engineering’s other robots, this one might cost as little as $149.
Whether or not you want such a robot in your bag is another question. It can entertain and enchant people, or make them wonder why that dust ball on your bag is staring at them.