No thanks, Mr. Roboto

I appreciate the Japanese enthusiasm for robots. I really do. I just wish they had chosen a less auspicious name or classification number for this security robot:

The prototype T-34, jointly developed by robot developer tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. Ltd., looks like a small wheeled vehicle and is loaded with sensors that detect anything untoward in an office building.

The whole “T-series” thing has a resonance in certain films that is particularly detrimental to the goal of promoting human tolerance toward nascent robotic life.