By Andrew Liszewski
I don’t think people give dogs and cats enough credit. I won’t pretend they’re the smartest creatures on the planet, but dressing up a remotely operated camera so it looks like a cyclops version of AIBO probably isn’t going to fool them into thinking it’s just another member of the family. Particularly with the remote camera making constant whirring noises as it pans 35 degrees left or right, 40 degrees up or 5 degrees down.
It’s hard to gauge the scale of the Mimamori based on this product shot alone, but apparently it’s only about 4 inches on each side, so hiding it somewhere in your home wouldn’t be that difficult. The sensor in the camera boasts over 300,000 pixels, but run the numbers and that unfortunately only equates to 640×480 stills and even crappier 176×144 videos. But it can be remotely triggered by a cellphone via an SMS message which will get you a just-snapped MMS photo in return, or you can let the optical motion sensor automatically start recording whenever your pet walks by. There’s no pricing as of yet, but apparently the Mimamori Z001, and a less cute Z002 version, will be available from SoftBank in Japan sometime in September.
[ PR – SoftBank Mimamori ] VIA [ Gizmag ]
