You can see it now. They’re nice and shiny - small and cute. They’ll work their way into our hearts and our homes, perhaps with Japanese dance moves, and then bam they’ll gang up in their thousands on the street corners and take over our cities. But then again, the unconfirmed price tag of $50,000 is probably going to be the thing that ultimately protects us and foils their evil plans. And I’m not entirely convinced they’re even for sale.. Oh yeah, and the project has been closed down…

The Sony QRIO is a really cool and convincing looking robot. The movements are smooth and (almost) natural, which is a strange word to attach to such an obviously artificial thing. The video below is four of them in action in front of a crowd of reporters, doing some cool Taiko dance moves. Be aware though that the sound quality is pretty crappy.