"Roborior," a transparent robot that can glow blue or red, is equipped with a camera, speaker and hi-tech sensor and can transmit information to an owner's mobile phone or sound an alarm, its creator Tmsuk said.

"We want to create a robot that is both beautiful and reliable," said Yasuhiro Suseki, a spokesman for maker Tmsuk Sanyo, a joint robot marketing firm with top Japanese electronics firm Sanyo.

"As an interior object, this robot easily fits in people's living rooms," he said.

Designed by British artist Paul White, "Roborior" weighs 3.25 kilograms (7.15 pounds) with a height of 27 centimeters (10.8 inches) and can run at up to 19 centimers per second.

Roborior costs about 300,000 yen (29,000 dollars) and will go on sale in Japan late next year.

"Roborior" followed another home-security robot, "Banryu," which was jointly developed by Sanyo and Tmsuk in 2002.

Banryu, which looks like a green-eyed dinosaur, cost a staggering two million yen but 30 of the 50 Banryus found buyers.

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