Japan’s Cute New Robot Pup Faints If It Catches a Whiff of Your Stanky Feet
By Carl Samson
People too shy to tell someone that their feet stink really bad can now rely on a robot dog to do the job.
Meet Hana-chan, a 15-cm (6-in) robot from Japan’s Manufacturers Next Technology that barks at the scent of stinky feet — and collapses when it can’t handle the foul stench.
The robot gets its clever name from hana, which means “nose,” and is a common nickname for girls in Japan.
Hana-chan works through an odor detection sensor, and, when things are unbearable, sprays air-freshener to solve the problem.
Manufacturers Next Technology created Hana-chan in response to a man who wanted to know if he had the problem.
“He told us his daughter had said his feet were smelly… But he didn’t want to know how bad the odor was because he would feel hurt,” employee Kimika Tsuji said, according to The Japan Times. “That’s why we developed this cute robot.”
Smelly feet are especially embarrassing in Japan, where shoes are removed inside homes. The country has been going after scent-related products as of late, too.
In 2015, a company launched a spray product that makes anything smell like the head of a cat. Last year, several companies in Osaka made sewage trucks smell like chocolate. And just recently in July, a perfume company launched a fragrance that mimics the smell of a sumo wrestler.
Manufacturers Next Technology will start selling Hana-chan in 2018 for at least ¥100,000 ($9,280).
Watch Hana-chan do its job:
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