South Korea's Ministry of Justice has announced that it is testing robot guards in prisons. The one-month trial will be conducted at a prison in the city of Pohang, located southeast of capital Seoul, starting March 2012. The project is expected to cost one billion won (about $863,000).

The robot guards are designed to patrol prison corridors and monitor conditions inside the cells. If the robots detect signs of sudden or unusual activity, they alert the human guards. The robots also function as communication channels when prisoners want to contact guards in an emergency situation.

"The robots are programmed to analyze various activities of those in prison and identify abnormal behavior," Professor Lee Baik-chul of Kyonggi University, who is in charge of the project, said in an interview with Wall Street Journal.

The human wardens, according to Lee, have welcomed the idea since the robots can reduce the workload especially at night. However, these robot guards cannot crack down on prisoners in the event of a riot.

The project team is putting final touches to the robots to make them appear more "humane and friendly" to the inmates.

Source: Wall Street Journal, via Engadget