City of the Future

The CeBIT 2012 trade fair in Hanover, Germany, closes today. Its theme was City of the Future (title link). British artist Giles Walker designed this Pole-dancing Droid for Germany's Tobit Software. The firm doesn't intend to replace girls in pole-dancing clubs, but wanted to demonstrate its expertise in robotics. Point made. And it's a change from those boring robots that pour drinks without spilling a drop. The bad news for artists is that another robot on show, designed by the Fraunhofer Institute, draws human portraits, not very well. Yet. Security, not portraiture, is its purpose.