This laundry-folding robot startup swears it's for real

"A robot that folds your laundry is the kind of idea that sells itself. Just ask Syncere, a five-person startup that secured more than 1,000 preorders for its Lume robot with nothing but a simulated concept video. That video, which racked up more than four million views on X over the summer, shows a pair of bedside lamps transforming into robotic arms that calmly fold a pile of laundry on the bed."

"Automating housework has been a dream going back at least as far the invention of the dishwasher and its 1893 debut. Although most of the current robot revolution has focused on the workplace and the prospect of working side-by-side with a humanoid, the response to Syncere's video and that of Figure's humanoid folding towels last month has shown there's a lot of interest in domestic robots that could take over tedious chores most people hate."

""The idea is that you just dump your laundry on the bed and then you walk away . . . and when you come back, it's as if the laundry on the bed magically folded and sorted itself," CEO Aaron Tan tells Fast Company."

Syncere, a five-person startup, secured over 1,000 preorders for Lume, a lamp-like robot designed to fold laundry, after releasing a simulated concept video that gained more than four million views. The Lume concept shows bedside lamps transforming into robotic arms that fold laundry; preorders range from $200 to $2,000 with a planned launch next summer. CEO Aaron Tan describes a user dumping laundry on the bed, walking away, and returning to find it folded and sorted. Strong consumer interest in domestic robots is emerging, with laundry identified as a high-priority chore. Topics include design origins, enabling technologies, prior folding-bot history, and training data and techniques.

Read at Fast Company