Tiny Robot Smartphone: Invasion Earth 2016 – prepare to be facially recognised

That’s because the RoboHon is part mobile phone, part tiny robot.

But the designers want it to be more than just your pocket-sized secretary; they really want it to be your friend, with the tagline “a phone that moves the heart”. “A phone in human shape”, according to Sharp.

Developed by Japanese electronics maker Sharp, the gadget can recognize its user’s face and carry out a barrage of customized tasks, such as making calls, sending texts and emails, projecting movies and images, hailing a taxi and more.

However, Sharp have thrown a curve ball into the mix with the introduction of RoboHon, a new Android-powered smartphone that takes the form of an adorable robot “pet”. There’s also speakerphone mode… which turns the RoBoHon into a walking, talking embodiment of the person on the other end of the line.

It also comes with a front-facing camera (hidden in the eyes, perhaps?) and can take video, too.

RoboHon won’t have such lofty ambitions, though, with the robot mainly serving as a cute personal assistant who will make you look a little bit silly when you hold it to your head in order to make a call.

One area where RoboHon doesn’t seem to be particularly advanced is its size and weight.

Standing 19.5cm tall and weighing all of 30 grams – now, try using that as a phone – the RoBoHoN supports LTE and Wi-Fi thanks to a 1.2GHz quad-core processor.

Beyond that, Smart hasn’t said much about the phone’s specs or other performance capabilities. US-based MicroVision has revealed that its PicoP projector technology is built into RoBoHon. For example, the robot is shown responding to emotional stimuli such as someone crying, apparently of its own volition.

Questioned about RoBoHoN’s practicality, the CEO of RoboGarage, which collaborated with Sharp on the prototype, acknowledged that it was mostly a fun gadget.