THE SIGN SAYS NO SOLICITING!: Another Day, Another Robot Begging For Money
Just wait till Little Red WTF's eyes turn into flames and she steals your soul.
Seen here about to tear a woman's arm clean off, a begging robot solicits donations from patrons at a mall. Great, like it's not hard enough pretending all the human panhandlers are invisible. "Spare some change?" HOLY SHIT, WHAT WAS THAT?!
Korean researchers, with input from MIT's famous Media Lab, have been developing their "urban donation motivating robot," a.k.a. DONA, for a while, and just unveiled the most advanced prototype yet. DONA is essentially a tiny droid that's heavy on the cuteness and packed with robotic smarts--enough to make it engage with potential charity donors in a convincing way.
The robot has sensors above its donation box that detect someone approaching--it then reacts with some body-moves like bowing, waving and wiggling its arms in a pleased way, which makes the donor happy, and potentially entices other nearby people to hand over some cash, too, in exchange for more robotic wiggling.
No thank you. I'd rather put all my change in one of those giant coin whirlpools at the mall anyways. But not the quarters -- I need those for laundry. Speaking of which -- I found a loose pair of panties in the laundry room when I was doing a load of towels. If they're yours you can come get them, FROM MY HEAD. Haha -- I'm peepin' through a leg-hole!
Hit the jump for a video demonstration of the BURN IT WITH FIRE, DO IT NOW!
The Beggar 'Bot: Highest-Tech Solution Yet To Charity Fatigue [fastcompany]
Thanks to Jon and Matt, who never talk to strangers. BUT HOW YOU GONNA MAKE NEW FRIENDS?!
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