If you think your girlfriend is high maintenance now, just wait until the FT "Female Type" robot hits the market. I'm sure the 23 motors, 2 gyros and 1 Lithium polymer battery that motor-vate the FT with girlish grace don't come cheap. The FT was designed by Tomotaka Takahashi, one of the whiz kids at Kyoto University's "Robo Garage ". Only two models - an appropriate term - currently exist and the one slated for the auction block is priced at a cool 300 grand. Dollars, not Yen.

Takahashi spent over a year developing and refining the FT before presenting "her" debutante-style at the New York Japan Society's Tech Epoch on June 6th. The diminutive (sorry guys, she's only 14" tall) FT walked the walk but did NOT talk the talk - meaning no song & dance with Dr. Franken-hashi to "Puttin' On The Ritz", unfortunately. Now that's a scene we'd all like to see...

Takahashi believes that "half of all robots will be 'female' in the near future", which begs the question... top half or bottom half? (insert rim shot here). But seriously folks, that segment of male society that sees "I Robot" as "I Rubbit" and wants oh so desperately to have more Ann in their Androids had better cool their sweaty little heels.

The FT is basically just a test bed (quiet, Beavis) that crystallizes Takahashi's fervent desire to feminize today's mucho macho metal machines. To reach this end, the FT's onboard computer is programmed to move the estro-bot (dibs on that) with fashion model panache. Well Tomo, you've got me convinced - tell those testosterobots they can kiss my ASIMO!

The FT robot is presently not available for purchase, rental, drinks or dinner, and at an estimated minimum auction bid of $300,000 she's WAY out of your league (via geeksugar ).

Steve Levenstein
Japanese Innovations Writer
InventorSpot.com