Gear


Photo Booths Are Robots Now

April 12, 2019

By Greg Scoblete

Meet Eva. She’s a robot and a photo booth. Eva made headlines recently when a UK couple “hired” the robot for their wedding.

Like a Roomba, Eva can navigate indoors using infrared and internal map building. Unlike a Roomba, Eva has facial recognition software that allows it (her?) to locate people, approach them and ask them if they want to be photographed. At that point, Eva functions like a traditional photo booth. She has a 23.8-inch touch screen display and an integrated DSLR. Eva’s images can be uploaded to social media, emailed to guests or routed to a printer.

Eva weighs in at about 110 pounds and has an internal battery good for about 8-hours of operation.

According to Bride Magazine, Eva just concluded her/its first wedding with apparent success. The publication quoted the groom hailing Eva as “a fantastic addition to our day and our guests are still talking about it. Eva went down a treat and really got people involved. It made a nice change from the normal photo booths.”

Service Robots, the company behind Eva, offers options to buy the robot for roughly $20,000 or rent it. They also make a robot waitress, called Amy. Welcome to the future.