Robotic Pet or Soft Toy? An Autoethnographic Study of Living with MetaCat in the Home

Lifelike robotic cats, covered in soft fur and sensor-embedded, are now commercially available and being targeted at home settings. Typically, they are designed to respond to human touch and voice with pet-like behaviours such as purring, meowing and tail wagging. This ambivalence between pet-like form and robotic features raises questions about how they will integrate into home life. Will family members treat them like pets, toys or something else? Research has focused on their use for health and aged care but less so on everyday use in families. We conducted an autoethnography combined with observations in which nine researcher-participants with diverse backgrounds, ages and life settings spent up to ten days each with a robot cat called MetaCat. Our findings elicited surprising, sometimes contradictory experiences and feelings. We report on where MetaCat was placed in the home and the interactions it triggered. We discuss benefits, tensions and design implications when developing pet-like versus robot-like products.