Labububot is a spherical robot made by reconstituting twelve Labubu heads into a single form at the MIT Media Lab. With faces pointing in every direction, the project uses its deliberately strange appearance as a playful critique of social robots.
It was created by Miranda Lin Li, Jake Read, and Dimitar Dimitrov. MIT Media Lab describes the result as a “Frankenstein's Monster of pop culture iconography.”
Robots often get faces to make them feel friendlier. This one multiplies that idea by twelve and somehow crosses the line back into monster territory.
la machine is a new take on the Useless Machine: flip its switch and an arm emerges from the box to switch itself off again.
But it does not turn itself off the same way every time. The arm may emerge immediately, hesitate, move slowly, or combine its movements with different sounds. Sometimes it resists interaction; at other times, when left alone, it may extend its arm to seek attention.
Thousands of behaviors are available, and the machine is designed to develop a different “personality” over time as it is used.
A machine whose job is to be useless now has moods and personality-like behavior. Only the uselessness keeps getting more capable.
Robots often get faces to make them feel friendlier. This one multiplies that idea by twelve and somehow crosses the line back into monster territory.