Robotic armpit sweats you out of harm's way, Uncanny Valley just got a lot stinkier
London-based designer Kevin Grennan has a particular stance on the yet-to-be-fought Robots vs Humans war -- it'll stink, literally. Mocking a part of our bodies we spackle to stop secretions, this Brit created a robotic armpit that sweats out pheromones so you stay out of danger. As part of his graduate exhibit at the Royal College of Art, our android-averse artiste has three smelly cyborg concepts up for your schematic consideration: there's the underarm-equipped, bomb-sniffing bot that'll warn you away with the scent of human fear, and a picker robot that enchants female assembly liners to work harder, better, faster with its manly musk. Sure it all seems harmless, that is until you enter into a trusting relationship with an oxytocin-spritzing surgical automaton. We don't blame you if any of the above has you locking the Roomba up for the night -- that's exactly Kevin's point. But there's no need to panic just yet, a future filled with "but I'm a real boy" robot-complexes is still a ways off.
