Tokyo schoolkids get a robot guard

The Asahi Shimbun reports that a primary school in Tokyo is experimenting with stationing a robot at its entrance to register its pupils' movements in and out and guard against intruders. Approach within four metres and the robot will hold out its right hand and ask you to hold your ID card over the IC chip reader in its palm; once you do, it will greet you by name and let you know that your teacher has been informed of your arrival or departure. If you have no card it will ask for a name and, should you not be pre-registered, will call a member of staff and instruct you to wait. Being distinctly unthreatening--it's only a metre tall and 30kg in weight, and doesn't carry any weapons or alarms--its orders may not carry much force, but it does have digital cameras mounted in its head to photograph the face of anyone trying to slip through.

[Via asahi.com (Japanese)]