You know what they say about life being a journey, not a destination? Well, apparently, the same applies to eating. Eating is not just about picking up the food and shoving it into your mouth. The process that happens between picking up the food and sending it into the mouth is deemed, ermmm, grossly underappreciated. This is one area Exertion Games Lab at RMIT, Australia, aims to explore with an interesting robotic arm called Arm-A-Dine On-Body Robotic Arms.
Arm-A-Dine is here to add a playful element to the simple act of eating. The setup consists of an Arduino-controlled Braccio robotic arm attached to a protective vest and a smartphone. The robotic arm is position at the belly area, in front of the wearer. The robotic arm will pick up the snack and depending on the expression of the wearer or his/her dining companion, the robotic arm will decide who to feed the snack.
Basically, it is a competition of sort to see who can win the ‘heart’ of Arm-A-Dine On-Body Robotic Arm because, whoever has the happiest smile will get the snack. This means, if the robotic arm picked up something you want, you have to be sure to sport the best smile while ensuring that your competing companion frowns.
The whole idea of this third arm is to “enhance social eating experience by making it more interactive and playful.” TBH, I have no idea what it really hope to achieve. All I know is, that’s playing while eating – something most parents would frown upon. However, savor the details available the publication posted HERE. In the meantime, there’s a video of diners having a go with Arm-A-Dine On-Body Robotic Arms which you can find embedded below.
Images: YouTube.
Source: Exertion Games Lab via Mashable.
