Researchers at NEC System Technologies have designed robots with the ability to identify dozens of different wines, cheeses and appetizers, because that’s something we need robots for.

The wine-tasting robots, which are made to look like little people with eyes and mouths because NEC is based in Japan, uses an infrared spectrometer to determine the chemical composition of food samples, before naming the wine brand and offering some recorded comments on what your spicy chablis goes with. It can also identify sweet and sour apples from a distance, which is a really handy party-trick, if you’re at an apple party (it happens). Bizarrely the robots haven’t been given a name yet.

But what’s most terrifying is the fact that the robot’s infrared spectrometer has identified human flesh as both bacon and prosciutto; since we know that the robots have been programmed with commentary about food quality, it’s only a matter of time before they identify humans as the delicious man-bacon we are, and then it’s judgement day, and a bunch of Arnold Schwarzenegger-shaped robots are mowing us down in between lofty discussions about the cinnamon aftertaste of that 2003 merlot.

Right now the robot is 60cm tall, and would cost $1,000 if put on the market. No spice – but the robot could tell you which spice if there were any.

[Source : South Coast Today]