Need a friend?: Artificial intelligence may remain stuck on the computer screen, but aritifical companionship seems to be rolling ahead.

Fujisoft hopes for a wide fan base with Palro, which stands for "Pal Robot." The robot packs the equivalent of a netbook's worth of brains into a humanoid looking form that stands at a less-than-imposing 40 cm in height and weighs just 1.9 kg. Videos of the device in action show that it can walk and talk, respond to commands and do a clunky version of a robotic dance. In effect it is a netbook with arms and legs that can also function as a cute companion. The roundish face with flashing blue lights might take some getting used to but the voice is human enough. Palro runs on the Ubuntu operating system so users can program Palro themselves, deciding what they want it to do. Considering the cumbersome look of its "hands" getting it to retrieve a cold beer from the fridge will be a stretch.

Palro includes voice recognition, complete with five microphones and mono speakers. It has a 3-megapixel camera, 1 gigabyte of internal memory and 4 gigabytes of flash memory and the Intel Atom 1.6-gigahertz processor beloved of netbooks computers. It has a USB port and B, G and N versions of WiFi. It runs on a 7.4V/2,800mAH rechargeable lithium ion battery. Fujisoft has employed 20 joints, a gyro-sensor, three-axis acceleration sensor and eight pressure sensors on its feet to give Palro the ability to walk around by itself without banging into objects.