April 16th, 2008 by
Filed under: Portable Audio, Robots
ZMP’s Miuro may have been doing the whole music-playing, rolling robot thing even before Sony’s Rolly stole the spotlight, but it had the slight disadvantage of costing nearly $1,000. The company now looks to be changing that situation, however, with it teaming up with Sega Toys to release a slightly scaled-back but considerable cheaper version of the iPod dock, now dubbed the Music Robot ODO. Among other things, this one drops the built-in WiFi and camera of the Miuro, although it does hang onto the LCD that displays the ODO’s “emotion” as it’s dancing, and you do get a remote control to keep it from straying too far. No word on a release ’round these parts, naturally, but those in Japan can snag one for the not unreasonable cost of ¥15,540, or about $150.
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Posted in miuro, ZMP, sega toys, SegaToys, odo, music robot odo, MusicRobotOdo | No Comments »
December 20th, 2007 by
Filed under: Robots
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) just announced the winners of its 2007 Robot of the Year award. The grand prize goes to the work-horse, industrial robot from Fanuc Ltd. called M-430iA. The multi-axis, greaseless (read: sanitary) robot is part of a food and pharmaceutical handling system. Unlike your unemployed uncle with his GED, this bot can work non-stop, 24 hours a day, accurately picking up 120 items per minute as they roll down a conveyor belt. Other winners are the dancing Miuro in the small- to medium-sized venture category and Matsushita’s blood-toting HOSPI bot. The latter apparently winning due to its unique position to assimilate the human race.
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Posted in japan, robot, miuro, 2007 robot of the year, 2007RobotOfTheYear, fanuc, hospi, m-430i, meti | No Comments »
November 26th, 2007 by
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Robots
Check your servos Rolly and Miuro, there’s a new media playing robot in town by the foreboding name of “Murider.” The new bot from Woori features a 4.3-inch display for watching DMB mobile television and support for audio playback when sourced from USB-connected devices or SD cards. Details are scant but it’s said to stand (not roll) and a bust out a little dance with appropriately timed flashing lights. Oh, and it’ll do so for a fraction of the price of its peers. Just don’t be surprised to find little rolly muttering “Redirum, redirum” in response to this budget repetition of past events.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in miuro, murider, rolly, woori | No Comments »
