Personally, I think that the target audience for the Yotaro baby simulator would be children who have just learned that they will have a new brother or sister.
As you may be able to tell from the shot of Yotaro’s oversized head, the fake baby has a projector behind it to simulate a face, albeit a freaky one. This projected face can even respond to a touch. You know your skin turns a lighter color when you press your fingers against it? The Yotaro baby’s face can do that.
It also has, from what I can tell, authentic tears. The video that you can watch after the jump shows the Yotaro connected to a water tank.
As I said before, I’m not certain who this Yotaro baby simulator is designed for. If it is designed to prepare potential parents for caring for a real child, I just can’t help but think that it won’t work. Trust me, nothing prepares you for a real baby.
You can’t always calm a baby’s crying by doing a series of actions to calm it down, believe me. Maybe they’ll program the Yotaro to a “fussy” setting where nothing will calm him or her down, and it takes hours before the baby tires him/herself out. Now that’s realistic parenting.
Of course, Yotaro is just a concept technology from Japan’s University of Tsukuba. It isn’t available for purchase…yet.