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RoboStool Homotropic Furniture
RoboStool is the latest creation from Norris Labs. This robotic footstool doesn't just sit passively in the corner; take a look at this RoboStool video.
(Norris RoboStool Video)
Where would such an idea as a robot foot stool come from? I’m not really sure but one day while waiting for my wife to finish shopping in a Bed Bath and Beyond (and totally bored of course) I spied the ultimate in tacky furniture - a cubed shaped foot stool covered in the finest of brown vinyl. At that moment it occurred to me that this foot stool was just begging to be automated. And thus began the RoboStool project.
RoboStool can be controlled in three different ways. The first is via remote control. That's pretty good.
The second mode uses a beacon navigation system to guide the robot from point to point.
The third is a "'follow-me' mode that uses thermal sensing to track and follow a human target. "
This is very close to Philip K. Dick's homotropic news vending machine that is able to track human beings:
The restaurant, with the exception of their party, was empty; the news vending machine, being homotropic, headed toward them, still bleating. "The Chronicle's own circuit investigates, and discloses startling new details not found in the Examiner or the News-Call Bulletin. It waved the newspaper in their faces.
(Read more about Dicks homotropic news vending machine)
From Dvice.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/4/2008)
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