When we envision the robot apocalypse, it doesn't usually begin with an innocent game of table tennis, but a new video reveals that we might want to consider such a scenario.
The Japan-based company Omron (a properly ominous sounding name) posted the video to show off how its automation technology can help humanity.
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Omron's video starts off well enough, showing a wide range friendly-looking frail humans playing ping-pong.
But when the camera reveals the giant, instectoid robot hulking over the table returning human serves it looks like ping-pong is the last thing this death machine would be engaged in if it had its way.
Of course, ping-pong robots are nothing new at this point, with several companies demonstrating similar technical feats over the last few years. Nevertheless, Omron's automated ping-pong partner is probably the most menacing we've seen yet.
The robot won an innovation award at last year's CEATEC tech conference in Japan, but what it really accomplished is reminding us that when the robotic fun and games are over, things will get ugly, fast.