Robot Chicken?

(REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon)


(A baby chick (R) looks at Japanese toy maker Sega Toy's robot chick "Yume Hiyoko" (Dream Chick) at a chicken farm in Ome, outskirts of Tokyo April 6, 2007. The electronic robot chick which cheeps and move its wings at the touch of human hands is not only a toy for children but also a healing gadget for adults, the company said. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao)

Happy Easter I think:

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese firm is selling cyborg chicks that look and feel like the real thing -- but you don't have to feed or clean up
after them.

The palm-sized, fluffy robots, named Yume Hiyoko, or "dream chicks", went on sale last week in time for the Easter holidays. They join toy maker Sega's line of mechanical pets that includes dogs, cats and ponies.

The chick has touch sensors that trigger it to chirp or flap its wings when its back is stroked. It cannot, however, move.

"I think it is good as a pet because you don't have to feed it and clean its droppings," said Masahiro Okada, a chicken farm worker who was looking at the toys.

Sega spokeswoman Minako Sakanoue said the robot chicks were modeled on newly hatched bird since "at this stage they seem cutest". The chicks cost 2,310 yen (about $19).

Of course, I want one.