This Week in Robots: Japanese Couple Says ‘iDo’

Techi is honor-bound to offer you totally rad (and routinely bizarre) things to read about, and I for one don’t like to disappoint, so check this out. In the endless chronicle of robots infiltrating humanity’s dwindling normalcy, it would appear Japan is still proving itself crowned king – this time, with a robotic priest, of all things. Satoko Inoue and her groom, Tomohiro Shibata, were recently wed in a fairly typical ceremony, save for the atypically-nonhuman i-Fairy robot presiding over the affair. According to Inoue, who is an employee at Kokoro Ltd, the robotics company behind the i-Fairy, the decision was in the spirit of helping bridge the gap between human and robot. “I always felt that robots would become more integrated into people’s everyday lives,” explained Inoue. “This cute robot is part of my company, I decided that I would love to have it at my ceremony.” Hey, it’s your wedding, Sakoto. Though typically used as a museum tour guide (the very fact that this robot has a ‘normal’ purpose like that only serves to prove more fully that we North Americans have to step our robotic game up), Kokoro were more than happy to offer up the i-Fairy for the occasion. It’s going to be a nightmare to talk my girlfriend into this, guys. You don’t even know. Oh, and here’s some footage from the ceremony. Behold! [Via Reuters]