If movies and TV shows are to be believed someday the machines will take over. When that day comes – and Terminator and The Matrix plus the iPhone and hybrid cars are enough to make us think it is just around the corner – we’ll all likely be bossed around by robots. Until then you can have a robot help you with your diet. That’s the idea behind the new Autom, a personal robot developed by Intuitive Automata, which was designed to be a motivational tool as part of a weight loss regimen. The Autom robot was officially unveiled at an entrepreneurial event in Barcelona, Spain in June, 2009.
The robot is actually based on the PhD thesis of MIT graduate Cory Kidd, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Automata Inc., who suggested that interactive technology could help people lose weight. Thus the concept behind Autom is that people who keep track of their food and exercise whilst dieting will have more success, and if you don’t have someone to help you manage this information the robot can help.
While Kidd built his first Autom by hand while reportedly studying at MIT and seeing patients at Boston Medical Center’s clinic, the robot is already in the test stage. In tests people actually stuck with the robot about twice as long as who those using pen and paper. Maybe it was the cute robot body that did it, or maybe it was the fear that someday the machines will rule and they’ll remember that you didn’t stick to your diet!