Everyone perks up at a little social media love, but this cute robotic dog — called a Soshee — takes it to an entirely new level.
Like a good dog, they’ll sit — and stay — (albeit on your desk). But like an even better dog, they will also chime in with a cute song, bark, or shimmy whenever someone has interacted with you on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
The little Soshees are modeled after the Hungarian Puli dog breed, which is the same type of dog as the most famous pooch in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg’s mop-like pal, Beast.
The miniature pooches launched as a Kickstarter campaign this week, and take their Soshee name as a shortening of social media.
Related: Zuckerberg’s Dog Meets Viral Pug for ‘Pawer Lunch’ Together
Four servo motors are hidden under that glorious coat of fur, helping the battery-powered pooches make their adorable moves.
The dogs were the brainchild of Jason Buzi, a real estate investor who might just be the king of wacky side projects. Buzi previously went viral in 2014 as the mysterious @HiddenCash, hiding money and tweeting out clues.
“I do real estate… but it doesn’t fulfill all of my creative juices,” Buzi told NBC News.
Ready for another side project, Buzi said he brainstormed with some friends in tech and decided: “Wouldn’t it be cool to make something that’s cute and not just robotic, but looks life-like?”
And so, the Soshee was born. The animatronic dogs pair with an app on your phone and and only react to notifications from the paired phone.
While they live up to their name handling social media, the dogs aren’t equipped to handle calls or text messages.
NBC News got to meet three Soshees in person and play with the cute canines, which were designed by animatronic whiz John Nolan, who has worked on the blockbuster Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean films.
“The cost of making each one by hand is very, very time consuming,” Buzi said, explaining that the $250,000 Kickstarter goal was necessary in order to mass produce the robot dogs.
Each Soshee is hand-made with a few hundred strands of hair attached, making the 6-inch high and 4.5-inch long figurines look like miniature versions of their real-life counterparts.
If the Soshees Kickstarter is a hit, Buzi said he envisions expanding the line to include other dog breeds. Cat lovers, however, will have to wait their turn.
As any pet owner knows, having a fluffy friend doesn’t come cheap. The same goes for Soshees, which come in black, white, or brown and are expected to retail for around $169.
