MIRAI SANZO: Japan Gets Android-Based Smart Home Robot

Sanyo Homes has announced [JP] the MIRAI SANZO for the Japanese market yesterday, a cute, Android-powered “communication robot”. The little guy (22cm diameter) is part of an integrated smart home that Sanyo markets to “families of the future” in Japan (unfortunately, the company doesn’t reveal what version of Android it’s using for MIRAI SANZO).

The robot comes with a touchscreen, touch sensors (to activate/deactivate it), voice recognition, Wi-Fi and can glow in 7 different colors to express its current “emotion”. Its owner can say “Switch on air-conditioning in the living room”, for example, and the robot will make sure exactly that happens instantly.

MIRAI SANZO can also switch on and off floor heating, automatically fill your bath tub with hot water, send out an email to your cell phone when the fire alarm is triggered, etc. etc.

Sanyo Homes will start selling MIRAI SANZO in Japan tomorrow.