Robots Sell Robots

Roborior's debut (picturephoning.com < rediff) at major Japanese department stores was one of the biggest news last week in the nation. According to MYCOM PCWEB, The company, Tmsuk, will sell 3,000 Roboriors in total (2,000 at Takashimaya Department Stores and 1,000 at other local department stores), the price is about US$ 2,700.

[roborior. a house-sitting robot. ]

Izutsuya Department Store, which is closely located with Tmsuk, will sell about 200 Roboriors, so there was an event celebrating the robot's debut at the store. At the event, a humanoid robot called T63 Artemis served as a sales agent for Roboriors (see video). Other video clips from the event include: (1) detecting an intruder and (2) remote controlling a roborior using a 3G mobile phone (FOMA).

[altemis sells roborior. altemis is actually a security robot -- not only attacks criminals with smoke and fluorescent-ink balls but also serves as a friendly sales agent. ]

Tmsuk is not the only company in the market of domestic robots. According to Asahi.com, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries just announced a domestic robot called Wakamaru last week. Wakamaru could be available for purchase later this year -- pricier than Roborior but seems to have richer features.

[wakamaru. a domestic robot by mitsubishi heavy industries]