A small company based in Chalford has set Californian technology giants in its sights with its latest talking robot head.

Ohbot Ltd has already put 3,000 of its first robot, which has the company's name, in schools for use in 38 countries.

It is programmable and used as a device to stretch pupils’ computational thinking and understanding of computer science.

Watch a video of the incredible talking robot being programmed here:

 

Now the company is raising funds for a new mini version of Ohbot: Picoh.

The company's director, Dan Warner, explained: "We're aiming Picoh at the market for personal assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

"Picoh can carry out many of the tasks that an Amazon Echo or Google Home can, but with two key differences.

"Picoh is programmed by its owner so they have complete control over what the robot hears, sees and does.

"And Picoh has an expressive face."

Picoh can smile and frown, look around and speak.

Using It can be used to tell stories, greet friends, perform poems, tell you the weather.

The company says it can even have opinions on the things you like!

To help with the £30,000 development costs of the robot, Ohbot has launched a Kickstarter campaign.

View it at picoh.co.uk.

You can also see a video of how Picoh can be programmed at youtube.com/watch?v=FsYLbatz844.