To make the most of the Robot category here at Coolest Gadgets and reach the tenth position, I present you the R100 Personal Robot – man’s best friend after beer, dogs, women. It is a strange looking robot made by the famous IT company – NEC.

I’m wondering if the persons in charge of building the R100 focused so much in giving the robot plenty of features that they forgot to make it look good and stylish in terms of colors. What I mean is that a blue, red and yellow stripe is not a good option - maybe that is why they accepted some original color scheme ideas. In terms of design and shape, it is understandable the decision to make it simple since it is easier to make it move around.

On the features section there is some good stuff like face recognition because of the two incorporated CCD cameras - this feature brings two good to-do’s:

• the robot can identify the owner and cheer him up when coming back home from work (like a dog does, but I am not saying a dog is similar to a robot)
• with the help of the CCD cameras, the R100 is able to dodge objects while moving

More good stuff includes 3 microphones to hear your instructions perfectly; being able to recognize 100 phrases that act as commands; and being able to “talk” 300 phrases/expressions.

And the best feature stays for last of course - since the tiny robot can connect to the internet, it can also deliver your e-mails. I don’t know if he can read the e-mails out loud for you, but by looking at the first this image on this page I would say that is pretty possible that it can.

More info at the Personal Robot R100 website.