Having a “robot companion” in my office, as bizarre as it sounds, actually could be really useful, or at least, entertaining. But when I read about how SCOTY works, I wonder why my Mac can’t already do the things he can do.

I read about SCOTY in the PC Magazine article, “WowWee Unveils First Robot Media Hub“. He can greet you, speak to you, play your music for you, and even read your email to you. Hey, some of those things would be kind of nifty! How nice would it be to just step into the office, and after being recognized and greeted, say “Play my ‘Soft Music’ mix” or “Read my new email” and have it happen? Beam me up, SCOTY!

Then I realized that the actual physical element of SCOTY is actually unimpressive. It is just a mess of microphones, speakers, and cameras, tied together with a plastic metal frame with lights and a couple motors to keep the camera pointed at you.

Take out a couple of those luxuries (namely, the lights and the motor for the camera), and what’s SCOTY got that my Mac with an iSight doesn’t have? It has a camera, microphone, and speakers. The rest of SCOTY’s impressive behavior is managed by software, even the facial and speech recognition, and the interface for communication.

Furthermore, I already know the groundwork is there in Mac OS technology for handling speech recognition and synthesis.

So why can’t I have a SoftSCOTY on my Mac? Read my mail. Run my iTunes. All the functionality is there. I just need an app that ties them together and throws in a speech communication interface.

Mac software uberdevelopers, make it happen!