This robot ball stole my heart at CES 2025

I tried to meet Mirumi with a heart of steel. There are plenty of cute robots at CES every year, that’s a given, and you can’t just let yourself be wooed by every puppy-dog-eyed bot that looks your way. But boy, I immediately melted when this stupid little creature locked its eyes on me, then shyly tossed its head back.

Mirumi is the latest weird but cute robot from Japanese startup Yukai Engineering, the company responsible for the Qoobo Cat Tail Pillow and the toe-biting cuddly kitten Amagami ham ham. All he does is stare at you and move his head slightly until you are successfully tricked into a few moments of happiness. The idea is to emulate that overwhelmingly joyful experience of meeting a baby in public—a quick, random interaction that can change your mood. Mirumi looks like a combination of a newly hatched bird and a shrunken yeti, and his long arms allow him to cling to objects like a bag handle so he can come wherever you go and stare at strangers.

Inside the Mirumi is a distance sensor and an inertial measurement unit that tell it when there are people nearby and when it is in motion or touched. There are different answers for each of these scenarios. When a person first comes into his sight, for example, he will become shy and briefly hide his face, as he did with me. Then he peered warily again. Push it around and it might shake its head, “No.” It doesn’t make any sounds.

Playing with the Mirumi at CES Unveiled, I found myself in awe of absolutely everything it did. It has a nice weight when you pick it up, kind of like a little kitten. And on that same note, his little movements make him emit a subtle vibration, almost purring. I hooked the flexible arms around my wrist, which also had a bulky watch and a camera dangling from the strap, and Mirumi felt quite secure on top of that as I gently swung her around. On a thinner strap, like a bag strap, his arms wrap around completely for a better hold. (I probably wouldn’t trust it to stay on if I was in a crowded subway car or similar crowded environment).

The Mirumi is rechargeable and should last about eight hours before needing to be turned on again. We don’t know what the final color options will be yet, but Yukai showed off white, black, and peach Mirumis. The company plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this year before releasing the robot, and it has not yet been determined whether it will be sold internationally.

Is it ridiculous? Yes, absolutely. Especially when you consider the price: about $70, according to a Yukai representative. But the whole Yukai thing is pretty ridiculous, and at least for me (and pretty much every person who stopped by during the demo), Mirumi evoked the exact emotional response it was designed for. “It’s all about making the people around you happier,” Yukai’s Hiroko Sato said during our chat at CES Unveiled. I can’t really hate this.

Speaking of ridiculous, Yukai also shows off a little cat-shaped device called the Nékojita FuFu that will blow on food or a hot drink to cool it for you. Its curved arms attach to the side of a glass or bowl, or it can be placed on a flat surface to blow on a plate.

The company says it can reduce the temperature of hot water by 30 degrees Fahrenheit in three to five minutes. We didn’t have any scalding liquids on hand to test it at the show, but it’s really just a small fan with different blowing modes packed in a cute silicone body, and the fan did blow air.

As someone who waits an annoyingly long time to take that first sip of coffee or soup because I’m really sensitive to temperatures, I can appreciate an option that doesn’t include i do all this work. I can’t imagine going out and buying this, but it seems like a product that makes a fun gift – the kind that’s part joke, but also functional. Nékojita FuFu is expected to launch later this year for $25 after a crowdfunding campaign.