This Robot Will Rock Your Baby to Sleep
4moms’ rockaRoo takes the traditional baby swing and turns it upside-down — literally. The inverted design makes it 70 percent smaller than traditional swings; the device then uses sophisticated algorithms and mechanized controls to jiggle your lovebun into a state of gurgling semi-consciousness.
From the press release: “The 4moms rockaRoo’s motion-control software uses an array of sensors to continuously check the seat position and processes this information at a rate of tens of thousands of calculations per second. The software responds to the motion in real time, causing every ‘rock’ to be completely unique.”
Bouncing your baby on your lap? That’s so 2011. You can retire those knees, you won’t be needing them anymore.
Announced last October, the rockaRoo is now available for $160 to $190 in stores like Target (watch your credit cards) and Toys R Us.
4moms also makes the Origami power-folding stroller. Press a button, and it assembles itself from a collapsed position into its full height, not unlike Optimus Prime in Transformers.
The Origami charges itself as you walk (it will also charge your phone) and features running lights and an LCD dashboard that displays speed, distance, and ambient temperature. The cost of all this techno-wonderfulness? $850. A Mini Origami that’s roughly half the size will be available later this year for around $450.
Also coming from 4moms in late 2014: a robotic infant car seat that guarantees it will always be correctly installed in your automobile. No price on that one yet.
This is what happens when you unleash a bunch of engineers on the toddler tech industry. If the phrase “robotic baby accessories” brings forth visions of that creepy kid played by Haley Joel Osment in Spielberg’s A.I., then you probably aren’t the target market for these things.
As for the rest of us, well, the Singularity is coming. Our kids might as well be ready to greet their robot overlords, even if we aren’t.
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