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Banryu, Robot Or Dragon?
Roland Piquepaille writes "When Yoichi Takamoto, president of the small Japanese company Tmsuk, decided to build a robotic guard for your house, he was not able to use the familiar design of a dog. The idea was already taken by Sony, with its successful Aibo. Instead, he decided to develop the Banryu (or "guard dragon") robots. After all, nobody has ever seen a real dragon. So he was free to design it as he wished. The result is a scary robot which is 90 centimeters tall, weighs 35 kilograms, has more than 50 built-in sensors and can transmit an alarm to its master's cell phone if someone tries to invade the house. It doesn't come cheap. The price is about $18,000, but you can choose between five colors. The Asahi Shimbun tells us the story, while this overview includes several pictures of the frightening dragon." This is scary?
The price is about $18,000, but you can choose between five colors.
Oh, 5 colors! That explains it.
Buckethead
I for one welcome our new robotic draconic overlords!
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
"This is scary"
I don't know about you but the price scared me plenty.
and it needs a flamethrower.
sure, i could see that being scary. if it had built in blow torches...and were 9 feet tall.
BURNINATING THE ROBBERS!!
Just imagine a beowulf cluster of these. Just like the DnD movie! *schivers* I can't believe I watched that horrible movie...
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
scary as an IKEA toaster! Aaaaaaaah!
Why even have one? If someone was going to rob you, why not just grab that thing and run? That thing costs more than my car. What's it goint to do, call its master?
Hmm.. at $18,000 I think any burglar who gets caught by the dragon will thank his lucky stars and steal it.
Choose between:
60, 90, and 120 hit points!
Your choice of virgin damsels!
Comes in varied alignments!
Speaks Common, Japanese, Digital, and Draconic!
All for a mere 18,000 Gold Pieces!
It more resembles a cow. Of course I assume you are referring to the rare cow without wings.
This seems to be a hairsbreadth from Fido in Snow Crash.
My God, you're right! The very next thing is going to be killer nuclear-powered cyborg dogs!
"Hairsbreadth" from Rat Things, heh.
Bitchslapped. Neat.
Nah, it's a turtle!
Turtles can be scary, just look at Gamera... or Blastoise. What?
__________
[Big Brick Wall]
Eighteen grand for a humidifier with legs? I've seen scarier Legos.
It looks like a Guard Turtle to me. *shrug*
RaGe
We're all just noise on the wires..
This guy has the technology to make robots, and the most useful application he could think of was a "dragon" to guard your home? When are they going to come out with things we actually care about, like virtual sex androids? I think there would be a huge market for those babies.
Oh god..nachos through the nose and all over the screen.
Robots were cool. They were either really smart tins on wheels (R2D2) that shot a lightsaber your way in times of need, golden droids that looked like a person (C3P0) and could speak 3 billion dialects, or huge kick ass killing machines with gatling guns (ED209). In short, robots were cool and I wanted one.
However, this story has me convinced that all we're gonna end up with is fscking Muffet from Galactica... Thanks Far Eastern robot wizard dudes... Thanks very much!
OK, these people need lessons in designing killer robots. Three points:
1) Sharp jagged edges. This thing looks like it could safely be left with a kid.
2) Metal. Plastic is not useful for scaring people.
3) Red glowing parts. 'Nuff said.
Compare the cost for this with a series of security cameras, which have metal, sharp edges, and red glowing parts if you go with the right vendor.
telemarketer: Hi, I'm calling from ADC Home Security systems, how are you today, Mr. Hood?
me: Not to good.
telemarketer: Excellent, We are calling because we giving a way 20 free robotic house-gaurding dragons to people in your neighborhood and you have been selected to receive one. This dragon, an $18,000 value, will guard your home when your gone, perform CPR if you choke, or call the police if there's a fire. Plus, it comes in your choice of five colors. This is yours for free when you sign up for our $2995 a month service and monitoring plan for five years. That's less than a hundred dollars a day.
me: That's not free.
telemarketer: Yes, but surely you can't put a price on your family's safety.
me: I wouldn't have thought so either, but here we are.
telemarketer: But this robotic dragon is the greatest technological marvel since the beginning of time. It also can scorch intruders into charcoal and catch you if you fall down the stairs. Is there any reason you aren't interested?
me: I already have a security system, actually.
telemarketer: May I ask what brand?
me: It's a hedge maze in the front yard.
telemarketer: Really, does it work?
me: I haven't seen the mailman in a while, so I guess so.
telemarketer: Hmmm. *click*
Unknown host pong.
Dragoncow says M'roar.
...how do they come up with $18,000?
:-)
Maybe it's "powered" by a mac
What?
Ah to hell with the dogs, I want a Reason! :)
668.5
"The price is about $18,000, but you can choose between five colors."
This has to be the most absurd thing I've heard all year (yeah, all three months, ha ha). What possible connection does being expensive have to do with coming in five colors?
Honestly, it's on par with The Simpsons' "Beware! It carries a terrible curse! But it comes with a free frozen yogurt, which I call frogurt"
http://www.chmodoplusr.com/
Honestly, what good is an expensive guard robot that just alerts you? If I spent tens of thousands on a robot to protect my house from intruders, I want it to be able to tear any woodbee burglars to shreds.
I mean, really. Someone breaks into your house and hears this:
....
"FREEZE INTRUDER! Do not move while this autonomous robotic guard unit apprehends you."
whirr... thunk. whirr... thunk. whirr... thunk.
"This guard unit has commanded you to FREEZE!"
whirr... thunk. whirr... thunk. whirr... thunk.
"Hey, damnit, stop, I'm trying to... who the fuck left this stick in the middle of the room?"
thunk. thunk. thunk. thunk. whirr... thunk. whirr... thunk.
"Wait! aww, c'mon... "
whirr... whirr...
"Shit."
---
Quite a long ways off from that bitchin' mecha-thing from Robocop, neh?
s'wut i sed.
Well, as you say really the thing only costs about $500 in parts. But part of what makes it scary, AND a dragon, is the fiery breath - after extensive research it was found that the most efficient fuel source for said breath is $100 bills. So it comes equipped with about $17.5k of ammo to use for fiery ruination for would-be interlopers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
With the hump, it looks more like a camel. Primary defense weapon....spitting...
K9 is *way* better. I mean, sure he can be knocked on his side more easily than this thing can, but at least he's got a decent lasergun in his nose.
Furry cows moo and decompress.
If they act like the tachikomas, the buglars may expect a invite for a tea with biscuits while sacking your house.
So what's to keep me from pulling up in a pickup truck and stealing the guard dragon itself? I mean, I didn't see a big fricken laser mounted on its head or anything...