You’ve got to hand it to the Japanese. They love cleanliness, both in the environment and personally. But imagine a whiffer robot policing foot odour!
Hana-chan — a play on the Japanese word for “nose” and a common girl’s nickname — is a helpful little robot mutt who will bark if she detects moderately whiffy toes, but will keel over if the pong is particularly pungent. Photo credit: AFP PHOTO / NEXT TECHNOLOGY
Japan has proven its talent in innovation once again with this robot dog who can tell you if your feet pong. Hana-chan has a sensor monitoring device in its nose that detects if you have smelly feet.
The cute looking pooch will show gestures of delight and excitement if your feet smell fresh. But if it they’re a bit ‘on the nose’, Hana-chan gives out an angry barking sound. But what if your foot odour truly sucks? Poor Hana-chan sort of faints, like it has really quit on you.
Aside from just being so utterly cute, the robotic dog is useful for Japanese people especially with their culture of taking their footwear off when they enter establishments and even their own homes.
The first ever mock-up of the feet smelling robotic dog was released in 2015. It was initiated by a company called Next Technology. Now the firm is all set to officially release it to the market for the whopping price of about a hundred thousand yen which means $9,280 in dollars.
I’m not sure my foot odour justifies that kind of expense but that dog sure is cute!
