I’ve been following Autom for years now, first interfacing with this happy little robot in China and then watching her grow into a young, intelligent diet robot. What does she do? She’s designed to help you lose weight by talking to you every day and getting to know your habits and peccadilloes.
Autom sits on your counter and asks what you’re eating. You tell her, through on-screen prompts, and she reminds you to weigh yourself and gives you moral support. Although you wouldn’t think a little plastic robot could help people shed the pounds, you’d be surprised by what a non-judgmental, plastic baby can do for your self-esteem. During testing, users began to dress their robots up in funny clothes and came to consider them friends.
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You’ll recall that there was a bit of a buzz a few years ago about a fat-fighting robot named Autom designed to sit on your counter and convince you not to eat that last slice of pizza. Well, the old girl is almost ready for production and should be arriving next Fall. Autom, in her first incarnation, looked a bit weird and was basically a fancy computer case. Now, however, this thing is like a fat-fighting Furby with expressive eyes and a cute little mouth that definitely wouldn’t ever eat the last slice of pie, unlike me. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
