Linux-Powered Humanoid Robot on Sale Friday

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices is reporting that a run of 100 Linux-powered humanoid robots goes on sale this Friday in Japan. From the article: 'priced at 1.5M Yen (about $14,000), not including 10,000 Yen (~$90) monthly service fees. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries conceived of Wakamuru as a pleasant companion offering a range of electronic-age valet services'."

Re:..services..

[aussie_a]

The software isn't that good. I'm sure it's more sophisticated then the "Claire" AIM Bots, but I doubt very much it can offer "meaningful conversations." I can imagine initiating conversations, basically following it (if Japanese is much more rigid and not as colloquial as English then there is an advantage), but not able to offer anything more then standard responses (such as "really?" "I see" "that's good news" "that's bad news".

"Wakamaru" means...

[luckbat]

The name "Wakamaru" is yet another Japanese pun (much like "Pokemon" was a combination of "Poketto" (pocket) and "Monstaa" (monster) to yield a word that sounded like "bakemon," (supernatural creature)), this time a combination of "wakai" (young) and "-maru" (suffix for male names) to yield a word that means "little one," while also sounding like "wakaru," which means "to understand."

Doesn't it make you wish our product names were as clever?