I got this excerpt from NY1.com:
Robot Festival In Chelsea Shows Off Some Creative Hunks Of Metal
JULY 14, 2003
“...........You have salons, you go to for a manicure, a coiffure, and this is a salon you can to for a tickle, a caress, by robot,” says Maria Verstappen, the co-creator of Tickle Salon.
Sensors in the robot’s little arm first make a computer generated model of your body so it can figure out how best to make you giggle.
“It creates a three-dimensional shape which is displayed on the monitor, and it's going to react to that, so the more the computer knows about the shape of your body, it can stroke you more subtly and intelligently after a while,” says Verstappen. “It’s maybe like the tail of a cat when it touches your skin, when it's sweeping.”
It’s not quite Rosy from The Jetsons, but if it's not going to cook and clean for you, I guess a good back scratch isn't so bad.
Tuesday is the final day of the Robot Festival. The event ends with a discussion by a panel of robot experts beginning at 6 p.m.
For more information, either call 212-252-5193, or visit
www.eyebeam.org.