Sanrio is known worldwide for their Hello Kitty Merchandise. They have come out with everything from a Hello Kitty Waffle Maker, theme cars, to even a body fat meter! Now they're giving us the Hello Kitty Emergency Gadget.

To be fair, the Emergency Gadget does have very useful features. It's a cellphone charger, flashlight, AM/FM Radio, Hazard Siren, and compass. Another useful feature is that this item can be run off a single nine volt battery.

For all its attempts to being cute, we can see a market pull for this product. It's Hello Kitty, hello?!

   

More pictures at the full article!

For the Hello Kitty fans and health buffs out there, this gadget is perfect for you. It's Sanrio's Hello Kitty Body Fat Meter.

Now, if you're wondering what the cute kitty is doing on a weighing scale, we haven't the slightest idea either. Though it may be a good idea to listen to somebody who weighs just that of three shiny apples (according to Wikipedia). Anyway, the weighing scale has four variants: Body Fat Meter (BF-071-KT), digital display (D-041-KT), analog display (HA-011-KT), and a cooking scale (KA-011-KT).

The body fat meter retails at around JPY 6,000 (or US$ 49), the digital scale at JPY 4,000 (or US$ 33), while the cooking scale and the analog scale can be yours at JPY 2,000 (or US$ 17). Hmm... We've definitely seen weirder things from Sanrio.

Sure, it's Weird Science meets Austin Powers, but when you talk abut Japan and robotics, it's serious stuff. Sanrio's Actroid DER2 is the successor to the first Actroid DER, one of the most lifelike female robots - okay, girl androids - ever produced. We featured the first DER, along with four other androids, in an end-of-August article, so you can head there to see her and compare her with this latest fembot.

Yeah, the DER2 is a big-step improvement from her predecessor. In fact, she's almost dateable. Sure, she's still a little jerky when she moves, and it doesn't look like she can dance, but hey, she's as close as it can get to lifelike expression. She might actually be a good prom date when you need one (with the right programming, of course).

So, the price of a convenient prom date who dotes on your every word? Sanrio leases the Actroid DER2 for 400,000 yen ($  3,500) for five days. Oh well. See her in action courtesy of these videos from Newlaunches.com.