Rossum's Children

Welcome to the brilliant "what the hell?" idea of the day: the litter-robot.

This neat little rotating contraption autofilters and seperates litter so that the extent of your work as a cat owner is pulling the bag out and tossing it in the bin. Kindof handy, but as the product website warns--this is not a device for nervous cats. I can certainly imagine that many felines would be concerned that this giant plastic beast could become a "swirling vortex of doom" (as Engadget put it) at any time during the elimination process, which would be unpleasant.

But, admittedly, quite funny.

All I can think of is the hysterical and deeply angry product review(link contains strong language) of an automated litter sifting system that Tycho of Penny-Arcade wrote a year or two ago. Hopefully this thing isn't as bad.

I can't help but think that the first image looks like perhaps this is a disembodied cat head with a robotic 'body' that allows it to roll around. I can imagine it navigating mazes in a puzzle game. "Super-Kitty-Ball!" it would be called.

Litter-Robot automated kitty litter cleaner [Engadget.com]
Litter-Robot [product page]