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 is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: the upgrade we’ve been waiting for?
Thre Flip 7 models next to each other

I never really thought that I'd want to go down the route of owning a flip phone, ever since I swore off my Nokia in the early 2000s (you know, the one with the weird felt covering and tiny notification window).

Fast forward two decades, and I'm considering rejoining the race, thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7. Coming in at $1,100, it's not cheap, but it's definitely something different compared to the world of black rectangles, and it it feels like Samsung’s Flip family has finally come of age.

Read more
I used the Galaxy Z Fold 7, here’s why I’m completely smitten
The back of the Galaxy Z Fold 7

We’ve waited several years for Samsung to join the party, but it’s finally here: Samsung has followed rivals like Oppo, OnePlus, and Honor in building a thinner, lighter, and sleeker Galaxy Z Fold 7. It’s an impressive feat of engineering and a major upgrade over previous years.

It’s easy to consider the Fold 7 nothing more than an update to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, but in many ways, it feels like a huge step forward, not just for Samsung but for all folding phones. I spent a few hours with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in an exclusive preview, and here’s why I absolutely love what Samsung has done this year.

Read more
I tried the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series – they’re sleek, but with a lot to prove
Watch 8 on a wrist

Trying out the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic is a tough gig - not in terms of it being a hardship to try out two high-end models, but that it's impossible to assess them with only 30 minutes’ use.

I can easily talk about the improved design and the fit of the straps etc, but the real changes are within the health ecosystem, and they'll need sustained testing to really understand if they're any good.

Read more