robotdoggieOur sister-site TouchArcade points out this Japanese iPhone-powered robot dog. The "dog" is an app that is installed on the iPhone or iPod Touch and then acts as the face of the virtual pet. The dog was originally reported by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

The smart pet uses the front facing camera on the iOS device to recognize and react to certain gestures, and there will be over 100 different kinds of expressions that the pet can make. There will also be support for importing your own photos of your pets (or whoever you want, really), and there will be some sort of Bluetooth connectivity to allow multiple smart pets to interact with each other. And, perhaps most important of all, your smart pet comes equipped with the ability to sneeze. Sounds adorable.


The tamagotchi-like app launches in Japan on March 31 and the pet body will be available after that -- no details on pricing however. Neither the app nor the dog itself have been confirmed for U.S. release.

Top Rated Comments

Lesser Evets Avatar
Lesser Evets
122 months ago
That was wonderfully useless. He spent 2 minutes doing what? What the hell was I watching?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Straxus Avatar
Straxus
122 months ago
A Toy Dog walks into a bar...

...and the bartender says "why the long face?"
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
-SD- Avatar
-SD-
122 months ago
And there I was contemplating all the sensible, useful things I could do with my current iPhone when the new model is released....

I do so love the Japanese and their crazy toys. And yes, iGundams would be awesome.

:apple:
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pakaku Avatar
Pakaku
122 months ago
Knowing Japan, next we'll be seeing 50-story-high robots powered by iPads. It's only inevitable.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kid A Avatar
Kid A
122 months ago
the first thing i thought when the original iPad was introduced was "put a front facing camera on this thing, and it'd be awesome as an interactive face for a robotic pet grizzly bear!"

looks like my dream may yet be on the horizon... :D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlieegan3 Avatar
charlieegan3
122 months ago
That was wonderfully useless. He spent 2 minutes doing what? What the hell was I watching?

watching or lives drift away.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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