Skip to main content

Google Home too boring? You want Gatebox’s cute virtual character in your life

Gatebox - Promotion Movie "KANPAI"_English ver.

We are one step closer to a sci-fi future where we can choose to live with artificially intelligent robots and digital humans. This is the Gatebox and at its most basic, it’s a piece of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology for controlling your smart home. However, look closer and you’ll find that inside lives Hikari Azuma, an artificially intelligent virtual character ready to share your life. Moving beyond our simple interactions with Alexa or Google Home, Hikari-san will encourage you throughout the day, welcome you home, remember anniversaries, and ultimately, be your own digital companion.

Recommended Videos

If this sounds familiar, you’re right. Gatebox first made headlines in 2016 and 2017 with a limited first-run of the Gatebox. Now, following acquisition by messaging and technology platform Line, a revised version of the product is ready for mass production and is available for pre-order in Japan. The Gatebox device has been redesigned for a more space-age and home-friendly look, plus it has a motion detector and a camera for face recognition, which allows Hikari to recognize and respond to you.

The Gatebox is connected to the internet so it can control smart home appliances and perform other tasks such as providing news and weather updates. Additionally, an infrared blaster means non-smart products can also be controlled. While all this is helpful, it’s the Hikari Azuma character that makes Gatebox so special. The projection itself looks considerably more detailed and far brighter (Hikari means “light,” or “brilliance” in Japanese, so it’s appropriate) than the limited edition models first released.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Initially, the software version will be the same as the model released before, but in December an updated version will come with greater capacity for interaction, including the ability to share a toast and celebrate anniversaries, as seen in the promotional video. She smiles when she “sees” you, and greets you after arriving home. While some will find the concept creepy, and the video does little to help avoid this; there is considerable value in providing company for those who live on their own. It’s also impossible to deny the sci-fi attraction of interacting with a friendly digital creation on a daily basis.

Line will also become more deeply involved, and will integrate its own Clova A.I. platform into Gatebox in the future. Line is very interested in the concept of artificially intelligent digital creations we can live with, and for that reason bringing Clova and Gatebox together makes sense. While A.I. devices like this are very different to Google Home or an Amazon Echo, other companies are working on competing products. South Korea’s SK Telecom showed the HoloBox at Mobile World Congress this year, with a custom made digital human called Wendy inside, who performed in a similar way to Gatebox.

The new Gatebox GTBX-100 is available as a pre-order in Japan now, with deliveries set to begin in October, at a cost of around $1,330. Gatebox will not ship outside Japan at the moment, but it does seem additional countries will be added in the future. However, this may take time because both Hikari and Clova only speak Japanese at the moment.

Andy Boxall
Andy has written about mobile technology for almost a decade. From 2G to 5G and smartphone to smartwatch, Andy knows tech.
OnePlus 13 owners get a major new AI tool for free
Plus Mind is just the beginning of OnePlus' AI ecosystem
A person holding the OnePlus 13.

Owners of the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R smartphones are receiving a software update which includes a significant new AI feature.

OnePlus has started to roll out its Plus Mind AI tool to 13 and 13R handsets around the world, giving users the ability to receive intelligently suggesting actions while also storing the information for you to search through at a later date.

Read more
I saw every Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 color. This is the best
The back of the Galaxy Z Fold 7

Most smartphones are variations of the same shades of black or white with a sprinkle of color thrown in here and there, but we've seen a growing trend among the best phones where at least one color is far more unique. 

Samsung is not immune to this trend and has led the way over the past few years with a core set of colors that are available across many or all retailers and partners, as well as a few exclusive colors that were only available through its online retail channel. 

Read more
Apple’s iOS 26 public beta may finally arrive next week
Could apple's iOS 26 beta drop next week?
The control center with Liquid Design on the iOS 26 developer beta 1 running on the iPhone 16 Pro

Why it matters: Apple fans dying to try the latest iPhone OS have faced a wait longer than expected for the iOS 26 public beta, diverging from Apple's usually rapid rollout. A near-term release could help ramp up user testing , work out bugs, and increase excitement ahead of the full launch this fall, especially as rivals like Google push AI-heavy Android updates.

The big idea: Multiple reports suggest Apple is looking at July 23rd for the iOS public beta debut, based on insights from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This follows the developer beta 3 rollout on July 7, which skipped the typical one-week public follow-up.

Read more