When I initially read about "wakamaru", the first thing that came to my mind was Spielberg,'s AI, and while the movie's robots look much more human than Mitsubishi's, I couldn't help but feel a little creepy while reading about it.

"Wakamaru" is the nickname of a robot designed by Toshiyuki Kita for Mitsubishi. This cute playmobil-looking robot was named after a young Japanese warrior. You can read more about the origin of wakamaru's name on the project's site, but, as you can imagine, the name isn't really the robot's most impressive feature; here is a peak into what our future could look like.

Wakamaru is a robot that is friendly to people and useful for your life at home.

Its face recognition technology allows it to identify two owners and eight other persons. It recognizes approximately 10,000 words and speaks spontaneously, though always in accordance with the situation's particular context. From what I understand, wakamaru performs according to its family/owner's schedule and is able to perceive when something unusual occurs, so, for example, if someone gets home earlier than usual the robot starts alerting in a loud voice, and if it is not stopped within a specified amount of time, sends an alert via email.