Natural Born Video Bloggers

The
world’s first fully functional, humanoid, child-sized robots have gone
on sale in Japan.  They get all the cool stuff first.

We expect that most of these babies wull get snatched up by collectors
and investors.  After all, someday owning one of these will be like
having a Xerox Alto computer or an early Model A bought from Henry Ford
himself. We hope they come programmed with Asimov’s Three Laws…

TOKYO (AP) – A small walking man-shaped robot for home security and
entertainment is going on sale in Japan for 588,000 yen ($5,450).

The 15-inch tall, 5.5 pound robot called nuvo from ZMP Inc. also comes in a fancier
$8,200 version with the same functions and a design inspired by lacquer-ware
painted on its body.

The robot can walk, get up and respond to voice commands such as "turn right." It
links to mobile phones so that people can check on images of their homes taken
on a digital camera inside the robot’s head. It can be controlled by a remote
and is programmed to do a dance. It also makes musical sounds.

And they have video cameras and microphones inside their heads. Natural-born video-bloggers…

from AP