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Sewbo Robot Perfect For Heinlein's Bespoke Kilts!
Young freelance web developer Jonathan Zornow, with no previous background in robotics, manufacturing, or the apparel business, has succeeded in revolutionizing the clothing business!
(Sewbo robot rules apparel industry now, or soon)
His project, Sewbo, recently demonstrated the world’s first robotically sewn garment, and the inspiration came while watching a late-night Science Channel show called How It’s Made.“I would watch How It’s Made to help me fall asleep at night, because I found it meditative and soothing to see the machines performing constant repetitive tasks,” Zornow told me. “In one episode they did blue jeans. In this case there were no machines doing serene repetitive motions. There were people involved every step along the way, and rather than help me fall asleep, it kept me up.”
Zornow got stuck asking why there weren’t robots there to perform the stitching, and what clicked for him while watching the show was the realization that getting robots to handle the complexities of a material that bends is difficult.
The solution Zornow then came up with is almost laughably simple. Instead of pouring millions of dollars into fancier robots, he decided to find a way to stiffen the clothes in order to make them suitable for robotic machines.
I'm pretty sure that this would work very well for bespoke clothing kiosks. Robert Heinlein had in mind in his 1941 novel Methuselah's Children. On the run from the authorities, Lazaras Long needed a change of clothing - right now.
He sat himself down in a sales cubicle and dialed the code number for kilts. He let the pictures of cloth designs flicker past his eyes while he let the persuasive voice of the catalog drone on until a pattern showed up which was distinctly unmilitary and not blue, whereupon he arrested the display and punched the combination for his size.The plain blue uniform kilt he stuffed in the refuse hopper of the sales cubicle and left, nattily and somewhat flamboyantly attired.
(Read more about instant customized clothing)
(Astounding cover, 1941)
Via Singularity Hub.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/27/2017)
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