Welcome to Minimaforms' Petting Zoo, where long tentacles hang down from the ceiling that you can pet. It looks like it came straight out of Doc Oc's dreams.
The installation is at the FRAC center in France, and features these tube-shaped "animals" that respond to touch. The tentacles are equipped with Kinect sensors that help them track where a person is and lets them respond to a person's gestures—they'll wiggle gently, or sometimes move in an angry motion. The robots use Processing, a language that lets them move together in synchronized motions, and react to multiple visitors at the same time. If a visitor comes into the zoo and they are against the wall and not interacting with the "animals," they, in turn, will act disinterested with the person, and will deem the human "boring." Minimaforms states that their programming will lead to the tentacles developing personalities, and "intimate exchanges that are emotive and evolving."
Remember this the next time you pet a sheep at a county fair.
[via The Verge]
