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Japanese Company Creating Robotic Action Figures

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Action figures that pose themselves may be the next big thing in Japan's billion dollar plastic model industry. Speecys, a robotics company founded in 2001 by Tomoaki Kasuga (following a stint working on Sony's robot dog Aibo), has unveiled what it calls the world's first "Motion Figure" system. The company's MF-201 prototype consists of a 25-centimeter-tall human-shaped skeleton complete with 20 wire-driven joints, which allow it to move its head, arms, legs, and torso. The wires are threaded through the body and down one of the legs, which acts as the figure's primary support. From there, the wires are fed into a box that conceals a set of servo motors as well as Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi connectivity, speakers, and sensors.