Cyber Nanny.

Today's consumers don't worry about keeping up with the Joneses; it's more a case of keeping up with the Jetsons.

What household, for example, would want to be without a NetTansor robot?

The brainchild of Pasadena's Evolution Robotics Inc. is distributed through Japanese toymaker Bandai Co. LTD. The household robot stands 12 inches high and has a three-wheel driving base, integrated videocamera, microphone and speaker. When connected to the Internet through a standard home wireless network, users can remotely access the NetTansor from any computer on the web.

Users can access NetTansor remotely from the Internet, drive it around their home to check on pets while away on vacation, or even create programs for NetTansor to run entirely on its own, such as having NetTansor patrol their house and automatically send pictures to their mobile phone based on what it sees. NetTansor can recognize and respond to what it sees, from everyday objects and images to even specific locations in the home. The company suggests, for example, that a parent can program NetTansor to recognize when it is in the kitchen and play a personal voice message if it sees a child with a box of cookies before dinner, or if the dog's food dish is empty.

"We are very eager to see all of the applications our customers dream up," said General Manager Yoshinori Haga at the Bandai Robot Laboratory.

Bandai will begin taking orders for the NetTansor robot kit for sale in Japan on Dec. 16. The complete kit will sell for roughly $415.

"The NetTansor is an excellent example of how fast the consumer robotics market is advancing," said Paolo Pirjanian, Evolution Robotics chief executive.

Staff reporter Dan Cox can be reached at [e-mail] or a [phone], ext. 230.