Replica of the World's Oldest Robot
The first robot in the world was an Edo period miniature humanoid that served tea, circa 17th century. My friend Christine and I found a replica for sale at Maker Faire last weekend.So cool!
Fred Schodt writes all about this robot in Inside the Robot Kingdom,an out-of-print must-read about Japan's robotics industry.
That's a familiar sight -- I put one of those together a couple years ago (see http://bokunenjin.livejournal.com/93993.html). I recently got a similar kit for a doll that performs archery, but I haven't started putting it together yet. Unlike the archery doll, the tea-serving one does at least react to an external stimulus in one way (after it "serves" the tea, it waits for the cup to be put back on the tray before it returns to its starting position).
Posted by: katie | May 12, 2008 at 07:55 PM