A New Korean Robot To Compete With Banryu

By Roland Piquepaille

There is a new robot in town which wants to guard your home. This new security robot, which currently has no name, is designed by the Korean company Mostitech and will be distributed starting in June by Korea's top mobile carrier, SK Telecom. With its price tag of only $850, it will be a serious competitor for Banryu, which costs $18,000. The unnamed robot is 50 centimeters tall and weighs only 12 kilograms. In case of emergency, such as a fire, its cameras can take snapshots and send them to the owner's cell phone. Likewise, if an unexpected visitor is entering your home, you'll receive his picture on your phone, says the Korea Times in this article. Besides security features, it also can entertain your kids by reading them a book.

Below are two photographs of this new robot from Mostitech.

	Here is the new Mostitech robot alone (Credit: Mostitech).
	And here it is in a real-world environment (Credit: Mostitech).

You can find larger pictures with higher resolutions on this page from Mostitech.

Here are short excerpts of the Korea Times article.

The nation's top mobile carrier, SK Telecom, on Monday unveiled the security robot, which is to be named later, the first of its kind in Korea and said it could reach consumers as early as this June.

"This is a whole new concept gadget, which will set a new trend of home networking, because this device can move around the home," an SK Telecom official said.

In addition to the features mentioned above, this robot will soon be able to recognize faces for better precision.

The battery-operated robot, which moves around on wheels and recharges itself when its batteries run low, will also function as a caretaker and house sitter for kids, as the robot can even read a book.

It's quite amazing that this company can sell it for only $850, but this a deliberate choice in order to compete with the more expensive Japanese competitors.

"We will set the price of this robot at around 1 million won ($850). Thus, it can have a competitive advantage over Japan's expensive rivals. We hope our products will be a big hit," said Mostitech president Park Sang-hoon.

Now, all what the company needs is to find an attractive name for the robot.

Sources: Kim Tae-gyu, The Korea Times, March 8, 2004; Mostitech website