Talking Robotic Cleaner

With the launch of the Robopocalypse movie set for next year it would appear that some companies seem bent on seeing how close to the reality of autonomous robots that they can get and, this week, Sharp have decided to try their hand with a robotic talking vacuum cleaner.

Now, we don't think that this little robot called Cororobo (catchy huh?) is going to get up in your face and try to kill you with a carving knife anytime soon but, heh, you never know. These robots are getting pretty smart and, one day, they may just decide that the life of servitude is no longer for them.

Anyway if you fancy dicing with certain death by a robotic appendage you are welcome to try the most pointless robot we've seen for a while now.

Not only can you (WOW!) hear the vacuum cleaner speak but you can talk to it as well (SHOCK!) and it will even respond to your commands. But, that line has been used with mobile phones and all sorts and they still don't work so, we're not putting money on that feature being A-okay and, it's probably still a Beta.

Sharp also say that this lettle fella has an AI. Okay, so that's probably stretching marketing chatter to the limit and, most probably beyond the limit but the gig is that this thing is supposed to have some smarts.

According to Yuji Onishi from Sharp says about Cororobo moodiness, “Depending on how it feels, its words and movements vary a lot, so you can gain a feeling of closeness with it. Regarding Cocorobo’s learning capability, we’re planning upgrades that will make it evolve rapidly,”

Right, robots... evolve... seriously?

Asides from the B-movie horrors that could ensue the vac has a camera so that you can watch it tool around on your smartphone or, presumably, a tablet as well and you can even stream video from it. Not much use for security though as any decent burglar will just kick it one, unless of course it's evolved by then into a robotic guard dog.

We're betting though when this thing launches in June that there's not going to be a landslide of sales given the $1100-1600 (£680-990) price tag attached.

Before you buy though, please watch the following infomercial...