Designer Alisson Wilson Ströher’s IMO coffee maker is all about being compact and practical for your home. But it looks like a robot arm. Everytime I had coffee I would be sad that I don’t have the rest of the robot. I might search online and see if I can order his other parts, which would make me sadder. Because you can’t.

Would you keep a robot arm in your kitchen? This coffee maker can adjust its height so you can fill cups of any size. You can also brew three packets of coffee without changing the water inside. It’s only a concept, but if it existed, it would cost just $130.

e-readers aren’t for everybody. Some people like enjoy a novel while turning actual physical pages. That’s where this invention comes in handy. Especially if you aren’t able to turn pages yourself. Book Time managed to get itself a Robot of the Year award over in Japan.

It holds down books and magazines and automatically flips pages and keeps them from flapping in the breeze. We aren’t sure if this it’s voice activated or not, but it should be. It would be great for the disabled as well as the lazy.

Did a robot swallow that guy? Is this the next part of our evolution, where our legs are replaced by robots? Could be. In which case this is an evolutionary mullet. Business suit on top, partying robot on the bottom.

It’s actually for amputees. They will be the first to be assimilated by this contraption, trading in their crutches for this strikingly scary wearable commuter named the Chariot. The Exmovere Chariot makes it so that you are basically one half Segway. It’s all self-balancing and hands-free, making it easy for the disabled to get around and do normal things.

The Chariot has a maximum speed of 12 miles per hour and the upright design ensures that the wearer can communicate and interact just like any normal person.

[Botropolis]

South Korean telecom company KTF just announced a cleaning robot that can be controlled by a 3G cellphone. The Roomba can’t do that, now can it? The robot is called the CW100 and is the result of a collaboration with Microbot.

It’s a “smart” vacuum, like the Roomba. It can be controlled by phone, which the Roomba can’t, unless modded to do so. It uses an onboard video camera to send live images to the mobile phone, so if you see an untidy spot, the user can remotely control it using the keypad and clean it up.

Japanese owners of Sony’s rolly have been able to remote control the device for several months now. Now users in the US will be able to, with the release of Rolly Remote for US owners.

The software and firmware update lets you connect to Rolly wirelessly from a PC, letting you control things like playlist and movements. You can control up to seven at a time, if you wanted to choreograph a rolly musical. Head over to the Sony Support page to get the files.

If you see this thing suddenly appear in your living room, it might be a good idea to run. It wants to assimilate all of your Sony products. This nightmare-inspired mechanical heart is starring in a new series of Sony ads that will air during England’s World Cup qualifying campaign on ITV.

It’s built by special effects house Artem and consists of all kinds of Sony gear, with parts from BRAVIA TVs, Blu-ray players, VAIO laptops, Cybershot cameras, PS3s etc. Once it has absorbed enough Sony items, it will use it’s new powers to lower the price of the PS3 and lay the smack down on some Xbox 360 fanboys.

Silly Japan. You are just inviting the wrath of future robot-things with your antics… Perhaps you like having all of your buildings come down around you. Maybe you don’t mind being flame-broiled by robot breath. All I can say is, you brought it on yourself. Having said that, we do really think this freakish robot baby thing in the streets of Roppongi is pretty frakkin awesome.

“Giant Torayan” is a seven meter tall fire-breathing baby-faced harbinger of death. It’s also the work of artist Kenji Yanobe, who clearly has issues that should never ever be explored by any therapist. Ever. It’s a win/win. We get to see all this cool stuff from Japan, they pay the price later at the hands of a vengeful bot or five-hundred.

As usual, we covered our share of robots over at Botropolis. Some cute, some creepy. They sure aren’t quiet about their presence or their impending killing of us, which is why we have so much to bring your way. Here’s just some of what we covered this week:

Primordial Duel T-Shirt: Robots and monsters battle on a T-shirt.

Carebot: This nurse-bot for the elderly seems awfully controlling…

1/8 Scale ASIMO Action Figure: You can haz Asimo too.

Cardboard robot hits the street: The End Is Near

Robot scratching a cow’s itch: A little lower please.

Cindy Crawford: Robot hygiene.

NSFW: Worst Robot Sword Fight Ever

How do you get tourists to visit your land? Make it very clear that there is a chance that a giant robot and squid will battle it out during your stay. That’s apparently what the city of Hakodate, Japan was thinking. They’ve been producing official tourism videos unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

They’re action-packed and feature famous landmarks as giant robots battle a mechanical squid hijacked by aliens. It’s pretty awesome. I don’t know if I’ll visit anytime soon, but I sure enjoyed the flick. First video below.

Ron Tajima must be the laziest dad ever. His newest Roomba project involved his son. Specifically putting his son on the contraption to be carried away like a robot sacrifice offered up to our metal masters.

He calls it the Cradloomba. Child Services calls it the “This requires a visit to your residence right now” bot. While I call it genius. Is there anything the Roomba can’t do? It’ll help you recognize that abusive relationship, gives free pet rides, now it will clean your floor and let junior floor surf at the same time.

Remember Nintendo’s gaming robot ROB? Well, it looks like Sony has a new patent application for an add-on gaming robot, which will react to both the game and the user.

The patent was filed in June last year, for a robot that moves around the room detecting the environment, and then displaying the same on the integrated screen. The bot would be equipped with wheels, acceleration sensors, camera, microphone and speakers to carry out all of it’s sinister missions, like listening and responding to user commands.

Self decapitation should be built into all robots as an added safety measure. Robot decapitation is what you’ll get with this little guy. He’s a 4GB drive and includes a clasp to attach to your keychain.

He could have more memory, but who cares. He’s retro and cool. Kinda looks like he’s taking his helmet off to say hi. He’ll cost you $25. And let’s not forget, keeping robot charms on your person will endear you to our future masters.

For those of you who like crystals and cute robots playing jump rope, meet Robot Dreamy Tina. She’s the newest member of the Philips Active Crystals line from Swarovski. She joins her blinged out robot relatives Robot Happy Laura and Robot Naughty Raymond.

Perfect for robot-loving geek girls and can be worn as a pendant or charm. It will store up to 500 songs or 2000 photos with its 2GB capacity. The LED ears light up as data is transferred.

Robot gardeners? Students and researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed robots that actually tend to tomato plants, with no human intervention. The plants have soil sensors and can network with the robots, which is a great way of letting them know when they need water or nutrients. The robots are equipped with watering pumps and robotic arms that are gentle enough to pick cherry tomatoes without bruising them.

And so we enslave the plant kingdom with their new robot overlords. It’s a great way to see how it works out with plants first. If you start seeing a bunch of squished tomatoes, plants blackened and burnt, and greenhouses that look like a hurricane hit them, than we will know what they have in store for us.

I’ve said it before. We need more robot flash drives. It’s hard to find a cool robot flash drive. Some are too shiny, others, like the Ultraman are cool, but not robot enough.

This flash drive is all classic robot. The USB Robot comes in a small 1GB capacity, in green, black, and blue. Just yank his head off and plug him into your computer. When you transfer files, his little eyes light up!