The Banryu (which literally means “guard dragon”) from tmsuk and Sanyo Electric wanders through your home, keeping an eye on things. It can detect motion or the smell of burning objects, and send pictures to your cell phone to show you the problem. It can negotiate cluttered environments and climb over gaps of up to four inches. The press release says that it can move at speeds of up to 15 meters per minute, which translates into slightly more than half a mile per hour, so it isn’t much good at high-speed pursuit. Perhaps if a burglar fell down and broke his leg the Banryu could scuttle up and sit on his head until police arrived.

Anyway, it’s cute, and if it didn’t cost $18,000 I’d own one. The official site (which is mostly in Japanese, so good luck with that) is here.

(via Technovelgy)