More proof that robots will someday rule the earth: Now there's one that can tie a necktie. This forerunner of tomorrow's evil-machine overlords can put together a four-in-hand in just 562 steps.
Dubbed "Why Knot?," the 3-foot-tall contraption built by retired biomedical engineer Seth Goldstein holds a tie mounted on a stand, surrounded by motor-driven levers, gears, and rollers. All that scrap metal - one gear came from Goldstein's old Peugeot bicycle - wrestles the cloth into an elegant little topology, unties it, pulls it straight, and then starts over again.
Up until now, the inventor hasn't let Why Knot? escape from his basement in Bethesda, Maryland. But it's about to jump the fence. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers will exhibit an updated model at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute next year. Goldstein hopes it'll illustrate the complicated processes behind daily tasks. "The human motor system is unbelievable," he says. May that comfort us in the dystopian future, when our robot bosses show up to work sporting silk Yves Saint Laurents in perfect half-Windsors.
- Erika Check
credit: Carl Cox
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