fujisoft

Palro Robot by Fujisoft: So Cute But What Does It Do?

Filed under: Gadgets

A big question is: Does the public care what it does? It seems that the products designed by the robot industry are caught somewhere between being a very expensive toy and useless. Ever since Rosie was introduced on the Jetsons in the 1960s there has been a collective fantasy that a real housekeeper robot will miraculously emerge on the scene to help busy people manage their lives. Who wouldn't be interested in a helping hand who could cook, walk the dog and in general help out around the house? The Roomba vacuum, which can help with cleaning up some extra pet hair, doesn't count! Video chatting has become a simple reality; where is our "Rosie"?

At the moment The Japan Pulse reports that the newest robot to hit the market is the Palro Robot by Fujisoft. Showcased recently in Japan this cute humanoid stands a little over a foot tall and performs a variety of tasks. Included in this robot's repertoire is the ability to interact with household appliances such as televisions and cameras, act on voice commands, read out weather and news reports and of course the ever useful ability to dance. For those of you technology geeks who want to know the specifics here they are: Palro comes with a 1.6GHz CPU Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of flash memory, a 3 MP camera, Wi-Fi, 802.11 b/g/n, 3 megapixel webcam and a lithium ion battery.

The company plans to sell the robots starting on March 15, 2010 with the main market being research institutions but plans to sell it to the rest of soon after for a hefty price tag of 298,000 Yen which is over $3,000 US dollars for each humanoid pal! For those of you with some cash to burn Palro seems like an excellent luxury toy but I'm waiting for my "Rosie"!

Check out video of Palro in action after the jump.

Tags: cute, fujisoft, Japan, palro, Robots, technology, toys