Rossum's Children

Back in December of 2004, Gizmodo reported that Roborior was being released by Sanyo.

The robot, whose name is derived from (Robot+Interior), launched in department stores across Japan on September 28th, as a product from TMSUK (pronounced "temzack"). The little wheeled device is apparently completely integrated with the cell phone system, so when it detects an intruder it can call you and provide slide-show style video of the event. You can then talk directly into your phone and your voice will be broadcast by Roborior within the house.

The Roborior main page is flash, and Japanese. But if you follow the "movie" link, the video is pretty self-explanatory, even if it is all in a language that is foreign to most of you. In the video Roborior is shown as being a nice, normal white, however it appears that using his internal LEDs he can glow various colors in the dark, which seems like it would make him either extremely safe and nonthreatening or absolutely terrifying--I don't know which.

It seems you can also drive the little guy around your home using your cell phone keypad, which could make for some fun surprises if your friends get hold of your Roborior's number and decide to play "chase Bob's cat with the psychotic pulsing robot" at three in the morning.

tmsuk Releases New Household Robot [Japancord.net]