This is a robot and you're going to love it

Abstract

The creation of Stanford University's Interaction Design Research Lab at the Centre for Design Research (CDR), the footstool, named the Mechanical Ottoman, is an example of the laboratory's efforts to design non-humanoid robots that largely rely on non-verbal cues to foster social interaction with people. The lack of anthropomorphic features is an important constraint in my work. I also think this is the natural progression of the robotic technology as we start to see products in the space between industrial robotics and consumer devices.