Have you ever been busy running a marathon, but hunger and fatigue were holding you back? No longer will that be a problem, not with Tomatan. A Japanese vegetable juice company has designed a wearable robot that dispenses tomatoes for people to eat while on the go. The robot, named Tomatan, will only weigh 18 pounds (only!) and can be worn like a backpack… because that's normal.
A backpack that has little feet that come over your shoulders and a body that hunches over your head to feed you tomatoes. It actually sounds a little terrifying described that way, it almost sounds like being attacked from behind by Smeagol/Gollum.
Who is creating this highly necessary tomato dispenser? Kagome, the company that claims to be Japan's largest supplier of tomato juice and tomato ketchup. Of course, Japan's biggest tomato peddling company would look to escape the juicing industry and get right to the source.
Why on Earth do we need this? Two reasons, one supplied by logic and one from Kagome's employee Shigenori Suzuki.
- Why not?
- "Tomatoes have lots of nutrition that combats fatigue."
Suzuki, the man that believes in the power of tomatoes, will run a 5KM marathon (tomorrow for us in North America, today in Japan) with Tomatan on his back. One of the robot's designers will be running with Suzuki and Tomatan with a bag of tools in case things go awry.
On Sunday, February 22 another runner from Kagome will run a with Tomatan on his back. The difference is this runner will be running 42KM (a full marathon) with a mini Tomatan, the Petit-Tomatan. While the regular sized Tomatan uses mechanical arms to lift tomatoes into the runners mouth, the Petit-Tomatan uses a delivery tube (direct from tomato satchel to mouth) equipped with a timer so the runner doesn't eat too many tomatoes at once.
I want to know why there wasn't one person in the design process going, "Ok, this is innovative — that's for sure, but maybe we shouldn't spend money on this."
Tomatan in action:
[IBTimes]
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