Need a soothing back rub to get you through a hard day? Forget the wife, call the robots. Not all robots, of course, just the WheeMe, a light-massaging automaton that will give you “a delightful sense of bodily pleasure.”
Created by Dreambots, the palm-sized bundle of electronics will give you a gentle rub down the moment you let it loose on your body. Not only will it traverse your body’s curves on its own, it’s capable of self-balancing using onboard tilt sensors, so it will keep its hold even when you get a little twitchy.
The WheeMe measures 3.9 x 3.5 x 2.3 inches and weighs just three-quarters of a pound, allowing it to operate atop your torso without adding any discomfort. It’s shaped like a computer mouse that rolls around on four wheels, with nylon fingerettes underneath that perform the gentle strokes while it whizzes by every part of your body at 1.8 inches per second.
Since it’s a small robot, it can only do gentle massages, so if you like your tissues pounded hard, don’t throw away the local masseuse’s contact numbers yet. Still, this beats using one of those hand-roller massages when you need some light kneading and rubbing. With that said, it’s missing a seriously critical piece: there’s no dispenser for oil or lotion. What kind of man gets rubbed down without some slippery lather? Gah!
Want one? Unfortunately, the WheeMe is not yet available.Dreambots will be showing it off at the CES show in January, though, so if you’re going, you can probably try to steal one. Or just test it if you’re less criminally-inclined.
[WheeMe via IEEE Spectrum]