This slightly alien looking little yellow guy is Wakamaru. Remember a little while back when I was writing about Asimo and musing on robots coexisting with humans? Well apparently they already do. Kind of.

Wakamaru here is manufactured by Mitsubishi, and costs around £9100 (about $14000 US). While not exactly C-3PO, its purpose is to provide companionship and assistance for elderly and disabled people. Apparently the first of these little droids went on sale back in 2005. It has some limited speech and voice recognition capabilities, and using a set of onboard microprocessors, can perform a handful of basic duties like reminding people of their daily routines and calling for help if something seems to have gone awry.

It can also connect to the internet. Oh, and it has a Linux operating system. Obviously.

(Tip of the hat to The Daily Omnivore for the robotic shenanigans)