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House-Sitting Robot Hits Store Shelves in Japan

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the i'll-stick-with-the-neighbor-kid dept.

Eh-Wire writes "Roborior, a house-sitting robot armed with a digital camera, infrared sensors, and a videophone is on sale in select Japanese department stores. The house-sitting robot can detect break-ins with its infrared sensors and then call the owners cell phone and stream video to the tiny screen. At $2600 each the Roborior is not cheap. For those that require something a little more substantial, Tmusk, the manufacturer of Roborior, has produced a four legged version called Banryu. This one is the size of a large dog and sells for around $18,000. It's not supposed to shed hair or sleep on the furniture which could make it quite popular."

3 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Er. by medge_42 · · Score: 2, Informative

    We have a monitored alarm system, and the police are not the first to be called, mainly as they do not like being annoyed by all of the false alarms etc. I guess this would be the same thing.

  2. Life in Japan by shanen · · Score: 2, Informative
    Really unlikely in Japan. Actually, there's often furniture standing by the road waiting for removal. In many places you have to pay for that service. The resale market for used stuff is not very strong.

    Actually, I suppose it's closer to a deep thought to note that many Japanese are very security minded even though crime is so rare here. A few weeks ago the police were handing out flyers in the station to warn people about a "crime wave". Something like 30 burlaries in a month for a large district was really worrying them. Many of the new apartments have gated access with cameras and intercoms and all that stuff.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  3. New Scientist... by SJ · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...has more info about the expensive version.

    http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3061