Sophie’s Situation
The predicament of adulting in my life is laundry. I LOATHE laundry. If I had a laundry robot, all I would ask it to do is fold my clothes right-side out. It doesn’t have to separate by color or type of clothing item. I don’t care how loud it is, how much space it takes up, or the speed at which it folds clothing. I just don’t want to have to fold my laundry. Now, I came across an article that claimed to have created a robot that folds laundry. However, what qualifies a laundry robot to truly be considered a laundry robot? Well, there’s one essential aspect.
A True Folding Machine
A practical laundry robot is one that can have a full basket of random, variously colored clothing dumped into it and then require no other human interaction for it to operate. Has this technology been created? Yes, but currently it costs sixteen thousand dollars and will jam up like a copy machine if dark clothing is used. However, this robot is in its early stages and promises hope for the future of laundry. Think about it. One day THAT chair will no longer be a makeshift clothing rack, because of your in-house laundry folding robot. You’ll be the envy among friends.
Yet you will still procrastinate doing your laundry even though you dropped sixteen thousand dollars on a laundry folding machine, because moving clothes from the washer to the dryer is hard enough, let alone from the wash to the dryer to the folding machine. Doesn’t the future look grand? I sure think so! Now, what is this current laundry robot that I speak of?
Potentially the Greatest Robot of All Time
Essentially, the closest humanity has to this fantasy laundry robot is the Laundroid, a robot that uses image processing, artificial intelligence, and robot arms to fold laundry. Once the basket of clothes has been loaded into the machine, you will never be able to guess what happens. They magically come out folded! How? Unfortunately, the inner components of the machine are classified, because they border between sorcery and witchcraft. No mortal brain has the ability to comprehend the components of this laundry robot; therefore, the blueprints are hidden in a mountain far, far away.
Even though we don’t have the secret to folding technology, one can reasonably assume artificial intelligence is what makes a folding robot plausible in the future. In any laundry machine, there would need to be a series of cameras to scan each article of clothing and run them through a database for the robot to understand how to fold it. Currently, the Laundroid robot has collection of over 260,000 photographs of clothing and uses them in order to categorize folding techniques. The approximate fold time for each article of clothing is ten minutes and the machine connects to a mobile device to load each article of clothing into a virtual wardrobe. Although unrealistic to enter the average household soon, this laundry folding machine may be the answer to my prayers.
Folding Machine Suggestions
Although the Laundroid robot is breaking through the barriers of classic laundry techniques, there are some additional features that I would like to see. The first (and most crucial) aspect of folding laundry is ensuring that the article of clothing being folded is not inside out. It is not confirmed if this robot has that capability yet. The second suggestion would be for sock-matching abilities to ensure you never lose another sock again. There is an actual goblin that steals one sock from me every time I do laundry, but I am determined to one day foil his plan. Of course, another feature to perfect the laundry robot would be the ability to hang clothing, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Folding laundry is monotonous, boring, and my least favorite task. Maybe it’s your least favorite task too! In that case, can someone please invent the perfect laundry machine, so we can say #shutupandtakemymoney?
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