Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Japanese Robots to Monitor Pollen Levels

by Evan Shamoon on January 30, 2008 at 10:11 AM



Allergies suck -- so the always-resourceful Japanese have decided to sick robots on the problem. Tokyo-based weather forecasting company Weathernews, Inc. is apparently getting ready to install roughly 200 spherical robots across the country to monitor the pollen in the air. The shells of these bots are made of styrofoam, and a monitor inside does the dirty work. The eyes indicate the corresponding levels of pollen in white, blue, green, red and purple colors.

Two hundred hay fever-sufferers around the country will also send minute-by-minute reports via the Internet to Weathernews HQ, all of which will eventually add up to its pollen map for the season.

Robots and humans: working together for a less sneezy planet.

From GizmoWatch

Related Links:

Tags: Big in Japan, BigInJapan, Only In Japan, OnlyInJapan, Robotics, Weird, Weird Science, WeirdScience

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular