TOFU Is Squashy, Stretchy, Looks Like A Feral Keepon
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 15 of January , 2009 at 5:57 am
This, people, is what a wild Keepon looks like before it’s captured, shaved, and taught to dance. Well, not really… But you can totally picture it, can’t you? No, TOFU is an entirely different robot, designed to explore techniques of expression that have been used for decades by 2D animators. It’s called TOFU because, just like the soy product, this robot is stretchy and squashy. Built with compliant and elastic materials and OLED eyes, TOFU is not quite as smooth and, dare I say it, lifelike as Keepon, but it does have a certain startled charm:
I’m not sure if those a pre-programmed moves, or if there’s some dance software running in the background… Hopefully we’ll get some more details on TOFU sometime in the near future.
Comments (1)
Category: Research
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Comment by Ironman
Made Thursday, 15 of January , 2009 at 12:03 pm
it’s pretty smooth, but you’re right not as life like as keepon.
it does remind me of a couple of early animations though.