This robot will look after your kids so you don't have to

Machines already make your coffee, bot their way around the kitchen floor cleaning up after you and then help drive you to work, so why can't they also help out with the hardest part of a morning (noon and evening) routine: raising kids?

Very soon they could. Meet the iPal, a rolling, talking robotic nanny currently serving children in China and set for American shores very soon.

The iPal is the creation of AvatarMind, a two-year-old company with offices in China and Silicon Valley. It's designed to be a "full time companion," for your progeny, the company says, combining a "cute cartoon outlook, fine craft work, natural language understanding technology and cloud apps." Read more...