Sony unveiled today in Tokyo a new digital player that combines music with robotic. Called Rolly, the new device which resembles to an egg, is able to move in time to music, may flash lights and is spinning in circles. The device has two external speakers and the controls are in fact two circles: one used for choosing tracks and one for volume.

But the tracks and volumes might be changed also by moving the Rolly itself. For example, as Sony explained on the product’s website, in order to increase the volume the device should be turned clockwise. For decreasing volume, a counterclockwise spin will do the trick.

The Rolly’s moves might be also programmed using an editing program, called Motion Editor, on the PC and sent to the device thanks to a Bluetooth connection. In addition to playing back music from its internal memory the Rolly can also receive music streamed via the Bluetooth connection.

As technical specifications, Rolly weighs 300 g, measures 104×65×65mm, offers 1 GB of flash memory, enough to store close to 500 songs and the supported music formats are MP3, ATRAC and AAC.  The memory is used also for storing the programmed moves,

As Sony said, the Rolly name is a combination of “rolling” and “friendly” and the company hopes create new communities that will share the moves or just songs.

The device is powered by a Lithium Ion battery which lasts for about 5 hours if the Rolly is used only for playback.  If the motions are activated, the battery lasts only four hours, according to Sony.

For the moment, Rolly will go on sale only in Japan where its price will be 40,000 yen (US$354), but Sony plans a worldwide launch as soon as early 2008.

Late last month Sony also unveiled it first Walkman audio and video players, NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610 series.