The latest on the robot front (and that seems to be quite an active front these days) is, well... surprise, surprise from Japan once again. The land of the rising sun and robots for all occasions. This one is for the mums who have lazy kids (I’d love to include myself but I’m helping my mum with grocery shopping later) who don’t like going shopping so they have no one to help with carrying the baskets or push the carts. Kyoto shoppers will find this helpful handyman... err... robot, just perfect for those lonely shopping expeditions. The not so aptly named Robovie-II, developed by the International Institute for Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR), is designed to provide suggestions to shoppers about items stocked on the shelves. It even has the ability to converse with shoppers, well not much anyways but it does tell you what’s good and what’s not. Perhaps it could have been called Robo-Shopper or something like that.

Journal Du Geek