Face it – no matter how much you try, video calling just feels weird. Nokia is hoping to tackle the problem with its latest research project dubbed Jeppe. The idea is to make video conferencing more natural and friendly, by incorporating gestures and also the ability to move around.

Jeppe may have a face only a mother could love, but behind the huge eyes and gaping jaw is some pretty nifty tech. Inside there’s a camera for taking snaps or video, plus a location and ultrasound sensor to help him get around. The front cover is removable, to enable two-way video chatting.

The person on the other end of the line can also manoeuvre Jeppe about – at the moment this is only possible over a local network, but remote control over the internet is in the pipeline. In the future, Jeppe could become autonomous and find his own way around.

So far, Jeppe is just a working prototype but feedback from families and individuals has been promising, with people responding to Jeppe’s movements. Nokia is looking to take this little robo buddy further through a collaboration with a university – allowing full remote control over the internet, the ability to add custom gestures and even the capability to gather data from the environment that could be shared through a web service. Anyone interested in meeting Jeppe and helping him see the world should contact Seamus Moloney at the Nokia Research Center.