Yukai Engineering's parade of weird animal robots at CES 2025 continues with Nekojita FuFu. The little cat mounts to the side of a mug or bowl, blowing air to help cool it off. The Tokyo-based firm says the robot combines a fan and 'special algorithm' ' or a 'Fuing System ' to blow at random strengths and intervals, like a person. The unique name is a combination of two distinct concepts. 'FuFu' is an onomatopoeia for the sound we make when blowing on food. 'Neko-jita' means 'cat tongue.' This, in turn is a reference to people who have a low tolerance for hot food ' a condition that apparently affects nearly half of the Japanese population, according to a survey. 'Nekojita FuFu was born out of Yukai Engineering's 2024 internal Make-a-Thon,' the company notes, 'during which a team leader reminisced about how badly he wanted help years ago with blowing on freshly cooked baby food for his son because doing so often left him feeling breathless and dizzy.' Brian Heater is the Hardware...
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