Fembots Say Touché
The yet-to-be-released E.M.A. ("Eternal, Maiden, Actualization") fembot from Sega Toys has been generating quite a lot of buzz on the Internet since it was first announced last week. The decidedly female robot is 38cm tall and is capable of fluid movements via its "5 motors and 12 degrees of freedom." Those movements include dancing and kissing.
But don't be fooled by her wily ways--she is also a lean, mean, fighting machine. Well, sort of. It turns out that the E.M.A. that Sega Toys announced is actually a localized version for Japan of the WowWee Femisapien Robot that was originally demonstrated at this last January's CES. In the spirit of fanning the flames of growing interest in the lady robot, WowWee recently released a video of two Femisapiens battling each other in a more historically civilized fashion.
"The Femisapiens aren't really fighting each other since it's all scripted and they are not tracking each other's movements and then striking at a target, it does make the point strongly of just how nimble she is and just how easy it is to create fun skits with her that involve advanced body movements."
Sega Toys says it will start selling the E.M.A. in Japan in late September for $175. Meanwhile, RobotsRule.com reports that WowWee will be selling the Femisapien in the U.S. for just $99, and it will be available in "late summer 2008"--which could easily be interpreted as also late September.
The Femisapien is being positioned as the more-advanced mate to WowWee's programmable Roboapien robot. We wonder how soon it will be before we see Babysapien.
Update: As to more (questionably) practical applications for robots in the real-world, check out these two YouTube videos:
