And the first one is actually about a boy...

Child's robot was found slightly damaged with a garbage bag on its head.
Friday, June 19, 2009

Tareece Vann stood outside his home on South Smithville Road, hugging the 36-inch-tall robot his mother bought through the Internet three years ago.

The 5-year-old boy was showing his affection for the 24-inch-wide lawn decoration he had nicknamed Bubby.

A thief took Bubby — which had been chained to a mailbox in the McDade family’s yard — during the early hours of June 16. The robot was returned to a neighbor’s driveway on Forrer Boulevard about 1 p.m. Thursday, June 18, according to Tareece’s mother, Teresa, who said a garbage bag had been placed over Bubby’s head.

“I appreciate whoever did return him,” she said. “I’m glad that your conscience got to you.”

Mary McDade, TeresaÂ’s mother, was the first to get the news from the neighbor. Mary McDade picked up Tareece from day care before telling Teresa.

“Mom, mom, Bubby’s home,” Teresa McDade said, recalling what Tareece told her. Teresa told him, “when you get home, you can’t touch him (until) the police come.”

Kettering police did come to the house and advised her not to put Bubby back out for fear he might be stolen again.

Mary McDade, when asked why she thought Bubby had been returned, said, “I don’t know if they had a guilty conscience or what. Either that or they were afraid they were going to get caught.”

Teresa said despite what happened, Bubby was worth the $700 she paid for him. “Yes, to make my son happy. To help him out of his medical condition,” she said, noting that Tareece has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

“I never had a roo-bot before,” Tareece said, interrupting her.

Roo-bot? Damn...

You should've seen this coming...now wait for it...

When she purchased Bubby, he was known as Safety Sam, a robot created by Robotronics in Utah to teach children about crime prevention and safety.

Link! ⚠️ ↗

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My prayers ⚠️ ↗ have been answered! That is officially the coolest thing ever! [Note: it's fake. Stop motion. The priorities of the world burn my ass!]

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Right or wrong? ⚠️ ↗

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Finally, one I've had on the backburner for a while...

Little Seiko: Japanese company develops creepy kindergarten girl robot

Tokyo-based electronics company Murata yesterday unveiled a small humanoid robot [JP] that can unicycle forward and backward and is also able to stop without falling over. And it looks creepy to me.

[Note: this is op-ed. Seiko-Chan is freakin' sweet!]

The company introduced the female humanoid, which is supposed to resemble a kindergarten girl (!), as an alternative to their flag ship robot Murata Boy (the dedicated website for this robot in English is here). The video above shows an older, strange TV commercial for the Murata Boy (itÂ’s included in the post because the basic functions havenÂ’t changed much - and itÂ’s kind of cool).

Murata’s new robot is called Seiko-chan (”little Seiko” in Japanese) and stands 50cm tall (weight: 5kg). Seiko-chan is equipped with a slant detection function and a balancing system that is placed in its chest. Users can control the robot girl via Bluetooth and a built-in wireless camera.

The company said it produced four prototypes and is willing to lend Seiko-chan out to elementary and middle schools for educational purposes.

Aha! ⚠️ ↗