HRP-4C makes its debut in March, modeling a wedding dress by designer Yumi Katsura
Is the fashion world ready for more blank stares, strange gaits and personality deficits on the catwalk?
Do you think that there can never be enough of the above?
Then it could be time for a model of the science fiction variety.
Time Magazine’s 50 best inventions of 2009 draws our attention to HRP-4C.
She appears to conform more to the Kate Moss school of Waifmodels vs, let’s say, the GiseleGlamazon-type , at 5 ft. 2 in. (1.6 m) and 95 lb. (43 kg), will she be a force in international fashion?
Time is not so sure: “Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology developed the $2 million HRP-4C, which is equipped with doelike eyes and shoulder-length hair, as well as sound-recognition sensors and motors in her face to mimic human expressions. But with the HRP-4C’s unusually long arms, rigid gait and expected price of about $200,000, flesh-and-blood models needn’t worry about losing their jobs to futuristic fashionistas quite yet. ”
Why this is one of “the best inventions of 2009″ is a mystery to me.
