Nothing captures the public imagination quite like an outrageous contraption that promises to do your most annoying chores for you.
Case in point, this week, a video of a laundry-folding robot called "Lume" went viral on X. It's not a humanoid machine, but a pair of robotic arms that double as two bedside floor lamps — "the first robot designed to blend into your home," a caption reads. In the video, a woman dumps a bunch of blankets onto her bed, before the light fixture automaton unsheathe their claws and proceed to delicately fold the fabrics. Pretty neat, huh?
"I think you could be the next Tesla if you can actually deliver," enthused one commenter.
After much suspicion online, it turns out this dextrous display was the work of CGI, according to the robot's designer Aaron Tan — but he insists there's a real working physical prototype, even while refusing to show it off quite yet.
"It's a render, a 3D model that we built to paint a picture of how we think robots can fit into the home," Tan, a robotics researcher at Stanford, told the San Francisco Standard in a new interview. "It's made to look aesthetically pleasing."
Introducing Lume, the robotic lamp. The first robot designed to fit naturally into your home and help with chores, starting with laundry folding. If you’re looking for help and want to avoid the privacy and safety concerns of humanoids in your home, pre-order now. pic.twitter.com/2JmU0qXUIV — Aaron Tan (@aaronistan) July 28, 2025
In a world obsessed with creating robotic simulacra of the human form, having one impersonate your furniture feels almost charming in comparison. Tan said he was inspired by how household items come alive in the film "Beauty and the Beast."
"The term I use is 'ambient robotics,' where robots sort of work in the background, and you don't see them, but your chores get done," Tan told the Standard.
With the Lume, "we wanted it to have a single purpose, and stay out of the way until needed, like a dishwasher," he added.
The way it'd work is that the Lume would be exclusively controlled by voice commands or an app, doing no more or no less than it's instructed to do. "It's not supposed to be sentient. It's not supposed to be smart," Tan told the Standard. "It's not just going to be like, 'Hmm, I think it's time I start folding.'"
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