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Robot Taskmaster Berates People Who Lie About Their Diets

by Evan Shamoon on August 29, 2007 at 07:28 AM



If you don't like how you look naked, worry not: Technology is on your side...backside, that is! Scientists at MIT have created a robotic weight loss coach to tell you just how bad you look, as well as call you a fat, balding, and lying slob in the process.

A touchscreen on the outside of the robot allows you to input data about how many calories you've eaten and how long you exercised for. Meanwhile, cameras and face-tracking software inside the robot's eyes give you a stern, if somewhat hard-to-read, look of disapproval whenever this electronic taskmaster thinks you're speaking in half-truths about half-sandwiches.

Lucky participants in the Boston area will get a chance to live with their own little robotic elven gym coach nightmare soon, while designers begin to test its long-term effectiveness.

Now if the good folks at MIT could just create a robot to actually do the exercising and dieting for us while we call it names, we'd have ourselves a party.

From Engadget

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Tags: Diet, Health, Robots

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