Arm-A-Dine Robot, Arm-A-Dine

Arm-A-Dine Robot a robot arm worn in the middle of the chest that picks food up off the table and conveys it to you or your dining partner’s mouth. The intention isn’t to stuff you till you explode, though: Arm-A-Dine is actually a prototype designed to augment the social experience of eating. In a research paper from the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University in Australia and the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design, researchers explain how most food tech is focused on the preparation of food and not the eating experience. Arm-A-Dine not only grabs food from the table, but also makes a judgement on who to feed it to. A facial recognition app running on an attached smartphone scans your dining partner’s expression. If they’re smiling, your arm offers them the food; if they’re frowning, you get it. (And if the expression is neutral, the arm hovers ambiguously in the middle.)

Product:

• Country: Australia 
• Company: Exertion Games Lab