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Robotics Technology

House-Sitting Robot Hits Store Shelves in Japan 140

Posted by ScuttleMonkey 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."
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House-Sitting Robot Hits Store Shelves in Japan More

House-Sitting Robot Hits Store Shelves in Japan

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  • is $2600 cheaper than.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by free space ( 13714 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:12AM (#13386918)
    fitting a camera in every room?

  • Er. (Score:5, Funny)

    by FireballX301 ( 766274 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:12AM (#13386919) Journal
    OK, I read the abysmally short article, and I'm a bit confused. Wouldn't it be *slightly* more effective if it called the POLICE first, before calling you? I mean, if it was just a cat or something it'd be annoying, but in the event of a real robbery it'd be more effective to call the cops first.

    On another note, the thing is portable. And bloody expensive. So just tack on another $2600 in value to whatever the robbers steal.

    • Re:Er. (Score:2, Informative)

      by medge_42 ( 173874 )
      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.
    • How did that get rated insightful? Oh, I forgot this is /.

      Anyway, the obvious answer is that you should have a chance to decide whether or not it's a false alarm. In Japan, you probably left your door unlocked and it's just your neighbor moving your laundry out of the rain.


      • > Anyway, the obvious answer is that you should have a chance to decide whether or not it's a false alarm. In Japan, you probably left your door unlocked and it's just your neighbor moving your laundry out of the rain.

        Or your furniture out of the den...

        • Life in Japan (Score:3, Informative)

          by shanen ( 462549 )
          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 rea

    • No. The police will ignore you unless there's a guard on the property who has confirmed that he has a burglar caught. There's absolutely no point for the police to up and rush over to your place whenever the wind blows your curtain and a motion detector goes off.

      • Re:Er. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Neil Blender ( 555885 )
        No. The police will ignore you unless there's a guard on the property who has confirmed that he has a burglar caught. There's absolutely no point for the police to up and rush over to your place whenever the wind blows your curtain and a motion detector goes off.

        In Seattle, the police will come if your alarm goes off and your alarm company cannot get ahold of you. If it is a false alarm, they fine you $100. Regardless, you have to pay $40/year to the city if you have an alarm system that calls the police.
        • Most alarm companies have stopped pushing things like motion detectors that had a high false positive occurance.
          I had installed dual mode infrared/doppler detectors that signals an intrusion only when both the detectors give a positive.

    • Re:Er. (Score:5, Funny)

      by SoloFlyer2 ( 872483 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:34AM (#13387010)
      Robber0: Hey man, check out this thing!
      Robber1: What the hell is it...
      Robber0: I Dunno... But it looks expensive... Grab it!

      Oh the Irony :)
    • depends, for example you wouldn't want the police to get all excited about false alarms and such... ...if you really want that feature though, I'm sure you could just insert the police phonenumber instead of your own (and ofcourse tell the department about it, so they know hwo to react)

    • Re:Er. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dj245 ( 732906 )
      On another note, the thing is portable. And bloody expensive. So just tack on another $2600 in value to whatever the robbers steal.

      I really don't see the market for this in the states, but maybe some strange social forces exist in Japan that make this worthwhile. They are in love with robots after all over there. Usually in my area if someone worries about someone breaking into their house over an extended period of time, they hire a house-sitter; a highschool or college student who gets some independen

      • How do you trust that person?

        Can I recommend this robot, only $2600, in order to personally keep an eye on the house-sitter?

      • If you do it right, you could probably avoid paying anything for a house sitter, particularly in the summer!
        College student coming home for summer break, offer a free place to live (but they have to pay for food) in return for watching the place over the summer.

        Lord knows I would have jumped at it; my parents gave me a 10 PM curfew when I came home after my first year of college. Yes, you read that right - 10 PM. Assholes.

    • There is very little crime in the manner of home break-ins and street mugging in Japan. So a 'house-sitting robot' should best call the owner to determine what the issue is before calling the police.
      If it is determined that a crime is happening, then the police can be called. The crimes are recorded and the criminals can be captured. Eventually the robot makers will figure out that the recordings of the crimes should not be stored in the robot itself since the criminals will be destroying

  • Great! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:16AM (#13386937)


    > The house-sitting robot can detect break-ins with it's infrared sensors and then call the owners cell phone and stream video to the tiny screen.

    Now you can watch your treasures being cleaned out as it happens, rather than having to wait and rewind the security camera tapes when you get home.

    • Re:Great! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Donut2099 ( 153459 )
      Matthew 6:19-21
      19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
      20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
      21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

      • Lines used for centuries by corrupt priests to dupe gullible people out of their family fortunes.

        • Everything can be used for both good and evil.

          Yes, even this robot can be used for evil! Just think about the evilness of placing one of these in a girls' locker room, and then waiting unti... no wait, that's not evil, just a good opportunity.

    • Now you can watch your treasures being cleaned out as it happens, rather than having to wait and rewind the security camera tapes when you get home.

      I would much prefer that to waiting until the police had reviewed hours of security tapes, especially if the only things the thieves left were my toothbrush and my camera.

  • Heh (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:17AM (#13386942)
    Do the Japanese not have security alarm companies? Having a picture sent to your cell phone is nice, but I have Brinks. If my alarm goes off, a person calls me and they are ready to call the police. If my fire alarm is set off, a person calls the local FD first, then me. If, in any case, I don't give the correct codeword, a hostage situation is assumed. I'd rather have that than some glorified roomba.
    • You totally need to read up on your company.

      Brinks won't call the police first. If so, they'd be shutdown by the city due to fines for excessive false alarms. Brinks sends a car to your house with a non-police security officer. If that officer decides that the police are needed, then Brinks calls the police.

      There are penalties for presenting non-emergency situations as emergencies to the police. Usually the police are lenient in enforcing these, but if you have a company creating hundreds to thousands o
      • "Brinks won't call the police first. If so, they'd be shutdown by the city due to fines for excessive false alarms. Brinks sends a car to your house with a non-police security officer. If that officer decides that the police are needed, then Brinks calls the police."

        We made the mistake of going with a low bid for the security system at my small business. The alarm went off several times in the middle of the night for various reasons as they worked the bugs out of the system. Each time, the alarm company cal
        • Because people are more likely to read parents and ignore child posts. This way they can spout off random disinformation, and no one will check the followups for accuracy.
      • Um..
        Brinks won't call the police first.

        Correct, that's why he originally said this, "a person calls me and they are ready to call the police."

        And yes, fire companies don't have a problem with automated systems, because 1.) unless the system is malfunctioning, there's usually something that set off the system, which has a good chance of being something that at least one fireperson should respond to, but even if that's not the case: 2.) they'll generally charge you a fee (I've seen between $200-300) for comin

  • had to do it.. (Score:1, Funny)

    by know1 ( 854868 )
    i for one welcome our robot bodygaurd overlords

  • Camera robots? Bah (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I want a robot that will shoot the intruders instead.
    • ... Robocop then.

    • Re:Camera robots? Bah (Score:5, Funny)

      by slackah ( 909787 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:49AM (#13387061) Homepage
      Buy Lego Mindstorm and AK-47 then make your own "killer app" :D
    • For your own sake, I hope you never lock yourself out of the house and resort to breaking or crawling in through a window...
    • "I'm really sorry it shot billy. I guess he was too stupid to remember the code anyway. Want to have another child?" Flawless.

    • Re:Camera robots? Bah (Score:5, Funny)

      by snookums ( 48954 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:37AM (#13387217)
      A better option, with less chance of getting you locked up for murder is this:

      1) Install security cameras and hook them up to an image analysis system and your TV set.

      2) When the software detects an intruder, turn on the TV set with an IR blaster and bring up a picture of the room and the intruder.

      3) Overlay two circles with cross-hairs and flash the text "MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM - ACQUIRING LOCK". Move the cross-hairs around like they do in the movies.

      4) Eventually bring the cross-hairs together over the intruder, make a nice loud chime sound and flash "LOCK ACQUIRED - FIRE WHEN READY" in big letters.

      5) If the crims are still in the house at this point they deserve to have your stuff.

    • I've always wanted a dozen of the acid-injecting spider robots featured in Runaway [imdb.com].
      • Are you guys NUTS? That's just what the robots want! "Oh sure," they'll say, "I'll protect your house REAL good, just give me some acid-spraying tentacles and robotic laser scorpion claws! Huh? Oh, uh, to...you know...pinch the burglars. World domination? Hey, come on now - I mean...I'm a robot! Would I do that?"

        Then he'll gaze into our collective human-sheep eyes with a calculatedly innocent robo-expression and say, "Now what about those orbiting brain lasers?"

        We're doomed [seanbaby.com].
  • has a security system that does the same thing only better (it calls the police first) and cheaper. (Okay and it doesn't have the webcams, but I think she could probably get that installed).

    And best of all... the thieves can't STEAL IT. (like they could with the robot)

    The robot's COOL and all but... I don't see the point.
  • http://www.tmsuk.co.jp/roborior/movie.html [tmsuk.co.jp]

    Pretty interesting, but for some reason I couldnt watch this without constantly being reminded about the superiority of mobile phones and service in pretty much every developed country other than the US.

  • Humanoid robots in manga (Score:3, Interesting)

    by shanen ( 462549 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:22AM (#13386961) Homepage Journal
    Actually, what this article mostly reminded me of was a manga I recently came across. Not sure if I'm overgeneralizing, but at least in this case, the cute women with big ears in the manga were supposed to be human-shaped personal computers with a wide range of functions (including house-sitting). The particular one I saw was called Chobits , and is available in English translations, too.

    Someone else mentioned putting cameras in every room, and the reality is that's already trivial. You can even use free software to detect image changes that might be burglars and send those images to a safe remote location.

  • for the fees you would pay for this robot, you could install very well concealed nanny cams and a premium grade professionally monitored security system (think brinks).

    The bot should be targeted at those who can't afford this kind of system, which would mean it should NOT be the most valuable thing in the house. With that kind of price tag however, anyone who breaks in will most certainly steal the bot first. I know I would If I decided to rob a place which employed one.
    • With that kind of price tag however, anyone who breaks in will most certainly steal the bot first.

      I would disagree. Unless the criminal is stupid...

      Well since the bot has cell phone technology, as soon as you turn it on they can track you through the EMS service. That and there are third party technologies than can track your location based of the speed of your relay signal to one cell tower compared to another even though its a slight difference of a few milliseconds. (that's triangulating for you)

      If you w
  • Just so I cool steal their cool robot!! :-)

  • I would steal the robot (Score:3, Funny)

    by HD Webdev ( 247266 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:25AM (#13386979) Homepage Journal
    After all, I could look around for money but it would be much more efficient to throw a blanket over the robot, steal it, and put it up for sale on ebay.

    Or, I could start a new fad by mailing the owners pictures of the robot vacationing in other countries.

    Wait, it could take it's own damned pictures!
  • Now... if they'd only build it into my Roomba or Scuba so it can scan the house while it cleans.....
  • ..they will be adding a small shotgun :-)

  • Robots everywhere (Score:5, Insightful)

    by keilinw ( 663210 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:34AM (#13387006) Homepage Journal
    It appears to me that robots in the home will most certainly be commonplace in the near future. Japan already has lots of research on how ot make robots move, look, and even act human. Despite such aesthetic devices, robots are already starting to invade our lives. Manufacturing facilities, automated landing systems in aircraft, room sweeping, room mopping, and now security systems. The cost of R&D is high which is what makes the $2600 security robot so expensive. But, much like the Aibo, the more people that purchase such devices they will inevitably become cheaper. With that said, I encourage anyone who can afford one to purchase one and help drive the price down. Heck.. if I had the money I might spring of one of those space trips offered by Virgin Galactic or even another country.

    • Re:Robots everywhere (Score:2, Interesting)

      by keilinw ( 663210 )
      While I'm on the subject and replying to my own post.... I might add that it would be fun for iRobot or Sony or somebody to include software with their robots that allows the USER to program a general layout of their house. The computer algorythm can worry about obstacle avoidance, but having a hard coded map would be VERY handy. I'd take the time to program my Roomba to know where all the walls are and do a good job cleaning my house... heck it'd be a lot easy than programming IBM Via Voice to help me wi
    • Everywhere... except the United States.

      The most robotic thing we seem to make are vintage juke boxes.
    • I'm not holding my breath.

      What sort of fucked-up economics does it take for people to buy $2600 guard dog robots, yet I'm still shouting my fucking lunch order to a person whose sole job it is to type it into a cash register?
  • House-Sitting Robot Hits Store Shelves in Japan

  • Haiku (Score:3, Funny)

    by datafr0g ( 831498 ) <datafrogNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:45AM (#13387049) Homepage
    House sitting robot
    No gun or sharp knives to kill?
    Expensive door stop
  • screw that, I want ED209 [robocoparchive.com]!

  • Roborior? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by aerthling ( 796790 )
    Ouch. Some words were just not meant to have 'robo' melded with them.

    Robuard sounds much better!

  • Those weird Japanese... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mlg9000 ( 515199 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @02:46AM (#13387054)
    Is it just me or does anyone else wonder what's up with the Japanese obsession with robots? Nothing they've come up with is even remotely practical. Buy a good alarm system. I'm sure it's a heck of a lot better and costs much less. These things are even too expensive as toys.... What's the point? Sure it's cool to watch them. They are little more then dancing calculators right now. Once someone manages to get an AI system up to the point of being as smart as say a dog... then these thing might actually be able to do something useful.
    • It might seem a little weird right now, but small steps like this will probably hasten the day that far more capable robots become generally available. It also prepares a future market by getting people accustomed to these mechanical devices. Besides, the Japanese still save too much money, stuff like this can only be good for the economy there! ;-)
      • Besides, the Japanese still save too much money...

        While I am aware of why many economists think saving money is a bad thing, I still find such a mindset somewhat disgusting. It used to be considered a virtue to "save for a rainy day," and now in the US, saving is practically considered a sin to the point where most people are expected, if not required, to be in debt. After all, you only need the Protestant work ethic if you have bills to pay...

    • Is it just me or does anyone else wonder what's up with the Japanese obsession with robots?

      FYI, 1 out of every 2 robots is in Japan, so a trickle down from industry to the home seems reasonable.

      Also, Japanese are obsessed with electronic gadgets. I had a Japanese friend who came to visit and he and his girlfriend had these electronic pedometers that were kind of like pets to them. I never knew the why camera phones existed until I saw a TV clip of Avril Lavine in Japan and all you could see were phones in

  • The Japanese are miles ahead of the US (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    While we're diddlying our time away with silly games like dual-core CPU technology, the Japanese are furthering the gap by creating the products of the future.

    We need to try to be more like them.
  • man, this $h1t's been *done* before... http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/images/80 2/802_image_07.jpg/ [southparkstudios.com]
  • I don't need one- I'm always at home, or at school. Yes, I need a life, but I'm perfectly happy doing what I do (nothing).
    • Or, you really DO need one. It sounds like your lack of a social life is an incredibly lonely existance.

      Perhaps a robot can become that friend. Imagine sitting at school all alone, and your robot calls you up just to chat (about someone breaking into your hoe). Life could suddenly become more fullfilling.

      You could even get one of those Roombas to keep your sercurity robot company. I bet the three of you could have some great times!
  • Then comes the day when you get the following text on your cell phone:
    Roborior: Check out the video! It's me! I'm drinking your 50 year old scotch!
    To serve mankind, indeed.

  • New Scientist... (Score:3, Informative)

    by SJ ( 13711 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:37AM (#13387214)
    ...has more info about the expensive version.

    http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3061 [newscientist.com]
  • How about sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads?

    Now that would be awesome!

    Mutated, ill tempered sea bass would do if we can't get the sharks though.
  • I gotta steal me one of these!
  • And can I mod it to add a shot gun so I can watch from my cellphone the robotic house-sitter blowing the living crap out of anyone stealing my hard earned possesions.

    Only then would it be worth spending the $2600 to secure my home.

  • Your job, for which you get paid is to edit submissions. This means, just as it does in any other journal, that you are not obliged to accept the submission of a reporter in its raw form. Please learn, understand and enforce the difference between possessive "its" and the contraction "it's".

    That is all. You may now return to searching for goat porn or whatever it is that you actually do all day.

    • Not a troll; however, this is an irritating yet POLITE request.

      I mean, most people don't even use the word "please", and certainly don't provide rationalization based on logical premises which are founded in fact.

      It's a flaw in slashcode that there's not a appropriate forum for "meta-issues", meaning that the only method of talking about articles is to clutter up the commentary with thousands of requests for spellchecking, proper grammar, duplicate filtering, and everything else that has nothing to do with
    • Mod parent up, please. this is no troll, just the bare truth.
  • I herd on Attack of the Show that the Prime minister of japan was attacked by it...Only in Japan...
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I better start cutting the power lines a hour before I rob a house now.
  • When the robot can bring the newspaper and mail in and turn over the car every once in a while, not to mention mow the lawn, etc.
  • Water the plants, feed the fish, cats/dogs... walk said dogs and deal with the poop... open and close the curtains during the day and switch radio/tv/room lights on/off to simulate occupancy...

    until then, it's just a glorified burglar alarm...

  • Break in scenario (Score:3, Funny)

    by markov_chain ( 202465 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @08:38AM (#13388157)
    Robot: You have 20 seconds to drop your guns. 20... 19... 18...
    Burglar: drops gun.
    Robot: 17... 16... 15...

  • seems like an awfully expensive way to get cute videos of your pets.

  • Doesn't shed or sleep on the sofa but (Score:3, Funny)

    by trailerparkcassanova ( 469342 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @09:11AM (#13388370)
    does the four-legged one hump your leg?
  • Gort is very good. He just zaps those burglars and urchins with those lasers in his eyes.
    Great for those obnoxiuos dog-walkers always poo-ing on my lawn.

    "Come into my house and meet Gort".
    "Hey Gort, why are you lifting your visor? This is a friend."
    "Gort, why are turing your head at me?"
    "Close it!" "Turn off that lase beam!" "Klatu barada nictu!"
    (muffled screams, the smell of burnt flesh ...)
  • run YellowDog Linux?

    (Considering the articles are next to each other, it had to be asked!)
  • It struck me that if our Japanese friends put just a teensy bit more effort into combining a few different technologies towards the concept, we might get something really exciting out of it.

    So, what you'd get is a female android robot with sensitive skin and a comfy lap to rest your head on, that can sense intruders and fires when you're away, put out the fires and shoot the intruders (maybe with pepperballs?),

  • I like the idea of the four legged version. A three foot high dog; snarling, barking loudly enough for the neighbors to hear, and then firing off one or two rounds of ammo, just might make a burglar think twice. You could probably track the burglar by the odor trail running out of his pants.

    If it is controlled by Windows, I would not enter my own house without making sure the "dog" had not turned into a wild trojan horse.

  • I have a real dog - a kelpie. I don't have to worry about shedding hair and him sleeping on the furniture because he stays outside where he belongs. (Okay, he's allowed inside at night sometimes, but he has a rug to stick to.)

    He not only requires less maintenance, but is also a lot smarter than any robot, has emotions, is nicer to pat, can go places that a robot dog never will (let's see a robot dog run up a steep hill, go for a swim or chase a rabbit through thick scrub) and does a lot better job keeping b

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