It’s on the record that I hate dogs, and have written about Rex the electronic guard dog who can protect the home without leaving hairs everywhere and chewing your slippers.

Now Samsung-Italia have taken the concept of an electronic guard dog one step further and made Fido the robotic, canine suitcase.

I think this is one of the wackiest gadgets I’ve ever seen.

Apparently, and you’ll have to visit the Samsung Italia website to see for yourself, the robotic suitcase can be trained to follow its master’s or mistress’ calling just like a real dog, using voice recognition software. In fact the robotic hound can detect and recognise its master’s voice from 450 meters and chase after him at up to 26 km/hr, which is just less than 20 miles per hour.

The robotic case has a battery life of 95 hours, which is more than enough for any long-haul flight, and has a volume of 80 litres, or 3 cubic feet.

The best of all is the security feature. If the case is picked up by a stranger, Fido barks at an astonishing 200 decibels. Now a pneumatic drill operates at 110 decibels, and anything above 130 dB really hurts. So 200 decibels must be agony for any poor baggage handler who’s unfortunate enough to try and transfer this piece of luggage!

Found via bornrich.org.