Mori Is a Robot Lamp Designed to Reconnect You With Nature

Imagine this: You arrive home after a long day, open the door, collapse onto the couch, and let out a deep sigh. From the corner of your eye, you notice a mushroom-shaped lamp perk up. Its microphone has detected you coming in.

Mori raises its head to reveal round, lively eyes and a small diamond-shaped nose. That nose is actually a built-in camera.

Mori trembles slightly when it knows you’re back. Its name is Mori.

A Robot Companion That Responds to Your Movements

As you move around the room—perhaps while preparing dinner—the small robot face follows you. It observes your movements and makes soft sounds that resemble a combination of a bird and R2-D2.

After a stressful day, you can touch Mori’s head to make its eyes and camera nose retract into its body. It then plays a nature soundscape designed to help you relax.

That’s the concept behind One Kind Artifact, a startup focused on experimental technology with bases in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Shenzhen, China. CEO Hua Wang told WIRED that the company hopes to create five experimental “artifacts” during its lifetime. Mori is the first.

“In this day and age, there are certain relationships between humans and the environment that we want to restore: humans and nature, humans and each other. Every product is an experience that tries to reconnect some of those relationships,” Wang says.

Before co-founding One Kind Artifact, Wang was general manager of Meipai, a video-sharing app from Chinese mobile phone brand Meitu. He also co-founded the now-defunct social media app Bondee, which was temporarily popular in Asia.

What Can Mori Do?

Mori is a 12-inch-tall home robot lamp intended to reconnect its owners with nature, according to the company. It can play natural soundscapes and glow in different colors inspired by rain, forests, fire, and wind. The lamp also reacts to your movements and can guide you through a calming breathing session.

With its built-in camera and microphone, Mori also acts as a playful, interactive companion around the home. When Mori asks how you’re dressed, it shakes with excitement. While you play music or watch television, Mori can dance to the song or react to what is happening on the screen.

Mori Is Not a Traditional Smart Assistant

Despite its interactive features, Mori is not designed to function like an Amazon Echo. It cannot control smart lights, cue Spotify tracks through voice commands, or answer questions about the weather.