October 5, 2008: Epidermits

Wired has this toy, to creep out your friends and neighbors.
Kids will probably take it in stride, however.

A human-like tissue organism covers the robotic thing, which also runs on fuel cells for energy. In theory, you are supposed to be able to program it to move around and act as your kid’s nightmarish companion. But that's not all:

They require minimal maintenance, can be stored in state of forced hibernation in standard refrigerators, and are customizable with different body, skin and hair selections and through tanning, tattooing and piercing.

Kind of weird looking, but it does have a nifty handle the girls will like, and It
promotes imagination, filling in the facial... well actually the head features.

Hey, wait, what? Tanning? Tattooing?
Piercing, you can do to any old teddy bear.
I suppose you could tattoo your dolls with a sharpie, too.

But tanning? :eek:

I'm suddenly finding myself less disapproving of webkinz.

It's conceptual of course...

You know, I've looked at this thing five or six times, and I STILL can't decide if that's the COOLEST thing I've ever seen... or the creepiest. Nor can I get Dr. Frankenstein's exclamation out of my head... "It's... ALIVE!!"

Looks like a girl I dated once. Can you make bacon with it too?

I've been trying to figure out if the handle is at the front end, or the back end.


Maybe it depends on your gender. :unsure:

Treasenuak;489973 wrote:

I STILL can't decide if that's the COOLEST thing I've ever seen... or the creepiest.

It's the creepiest.
That's why they pay me 1.5 million dollars a year. I make executive decisions like that.

Does that metal tail vibrate?

"handles the girls will like"? not in my wildest nightmares, honey. I like this "concept" mo better:

Meh - standard shock tactic for grabbing attention. No real product, just a loosely dreamed up dystopian fantasy gizmo that may or may not be feasible to produce a few decades from now. All it really does is generate traffic on their website.

They're a design company. It's what they do. Like a concept car is never really released, like catwalk fashion isn't really worn. And they admitted is was supposed to be creepy technology gone wrong.

[COLOR="White"]And I want one[/COLOR]

Antimatter;490054 wrote:

Meh - standard shock tactic for grabbing attention. No real product, just a loosely dreamed up dystopian fantasy gizmo that may or may not be feasible to produce a few decades from now.

You can see it at MOMA, NYC, today.

All it really does is generate traffic on their website.

Once you get to their website, you have to click at least 5 times to get to this item... and that's only if you know how to get to it.

For the recipe I'm thinking casserole that comes with it's own cutlery/silverware. awesome.

From refrigerator to oven, also.;)

and great as a To Go option for families on the run...


...is it organic, though?

I was kind of worrying it is organic. :eek:

I got one thing to say to that. EWWWWW

xoxoxoBruce;490085 wrote:

You can see it at MOMA, NYC, today.

I'd love to, but NYC is too far from where I live. And while it's been feasible to grow tissue cultures into any reasonable shape for a decade or two keeping them alive outside the laboratory for long enough to get the product to the consumer is an entirely different story. And even if that could somehow be accomplished the tissue would quickly die without nourishments once out of the can. The MOMA specimen would only have to be kept alive for a few days and could be taken back to the lab nightly, but I'm willing to concede that even under these circumstances keeping the tissue alive for some days would actually be an impressive feat. IF they've actually done it - I suspect it might just be an "illustrative" prototype covered in soft plastic and not live tissue...

Wired wrote:

A real-life version of the Epidermits made its debut at a MOMA show in NY, but there's no word if people actually tried to pet it. Would love to know if someone did.

I would love to know as well, as that would confirm or rule out my suspicion.

xoxoxoBruce;490085 wrote:

Once you get to their website, you have to click at least 5 times to get to this item... and that's only if you know how to get to it.

I know - my point is that now we've both seen their website. And as we both tried to find any additional info chances are we've seen a few other pages of their site along the way.

I'm sooo glad Epidermits aren't this.

The name for this 'object' is just to close to this word "epydidimitis" :headshake

I think it may be a nazi extremist toy made from fresh cultures of dead Jews from Treblinka. No thanks. That thing is really creepy.