Most of the robots we cover on CrunchGear have been built for research or entertainment purposes, but some of them do become available for the general public at some point. And today we can give you the Palro (Pal+robot) [JP], a soon to be marketed humanoid developed by Tokyo-based Fujisoft.

The little guy stands 39.8cm tall, weighs 1.6kg and boasts a whole range of features: 20 joints, five mics, voice recognition, mono speakers, a 3MP camera, Wi-Fi IEE 802.11 b/g/n, a USB port, an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 1GB internal memory, 4GB flash memory, Ubuntu OS, a gyro-sensor, a three-axis acceleration sensor, eight pressure sensors in his feet, a distance sensor in his head, and a 7.4V/2,800mAh lithium ion battery as his power source.

Fujisoft plans to start selling a total of 1,000 Palros to research institutions on March 15 and to everybody else later (but within this year). Each of the remote-controlled Palros will cost $3,300.

See him dancing and doing other stuff in the following (Japanese) video:

Via Game Watch [JP]

The Puyocon wants to be for PCs what the Wiimote became for game consoles: An alternative input interface that doesn’t require pressing buttons but arm movements from users in order to control what’s going on on the screen. The small device is the brainchild of the so-called Entertainment Computing Laboratory [JP] at Japan’s Tsukuba University.

The Puyocon is a ball-shaped, soft and wireless controller that users can roll, throw, squeeze or move with both hands in order to trigger an action on the screen (for example, moving a cursor around). It features a total of 14 pressure sensors, a three-way acceleration sensor and Bluetooth.

The Puyocon responds to the force it’s being squeezed with or the impact a throw has on it. The idea behind the concept is to provide certain users, for example children, with an intuitive, easy-to-use input interface.

This video shows how the Puyocon works (courtesy of Diginfonews in Tokyo):

Here’s another video:

In principle, any advance in any field of technology is welcome, but I have my doubts about this new service developed by a Japanese company called DSS. It’s basically aimed at establishing a “big brother”-like control system [JP, PDF] within factories.

After paying $21,000, factory management can simultaneously monitor the activities of up to 30 workers and then analyze and visualize the data collected (fee for a 3-day-analysis). Each worker has to wear a gyro sensor and an acceleration sensor at the ankle and a mini video camera in the shirt pocket.

DSS also installs so-called infrared milestones (pictured above) at various places in the factory halls to be able to locate the workers, record their activity and then deliver a “digital heat map” of the factory to their clients.

The company claims their system helps to significantly boost productivity and cut costs in any factory. It also says the inspiration came from a Toyota production philosophy: “1 second = 1 step = 1 yen of productivity”.

Via Tech-On