A Tokyo-based venture firm has developed a laundry-folding robot using artificial intelligence and started taking orders for a model to be priced at around 2 million yen.
Seven Dreamers Laboratories Inc. said the refrigerator-sized robot named "Laundroid" recognizes the shape and type of clothing with AI and image analysis in order for its built-in arms to fold laundries accordingly.
The model is 2.2 meters in height, 87 centimeters in width and 63 cm in depth. Its surface includes tempered glass on the front and wooden panels on the sides, making it look like furniture.
All users have to do is throw dry clothes into a pulled-out drawer in the lowest part of the machine and the robot will do the rest as it identifies what kind of clothing it is working on.
The machine will fold clothes before sorting them out appropriately into mid-section shelves -- even into separate shelves for different members of a family. Up to about 30 pieces of clothing can be handled at one time and the folding process takes between five to 12 minutes per piece, according to the company.
Seven Dreamers began developing a laundry-folding robot in 2005. It decided to launch the new model after successfully taking orders for all 100 units of a more expensive model, priced at 2.7 million yen, between last October and March this year.
