There's a new kind of wearable that's partly robot, partly tomato.
Meet Tomatan, the hands-free tomato machine that's been dubbed as the "wearable tomato."
The Tomatan is a backpack that looks like a humanoid robot but with the head of a tomato. Once worn, the robot looks like it's sitting on the user's shoulders.
The wearable tomato can carry six mid-sized tomatoes, which are dispensed by pulling a tiny lever located at the robot's foot. The arms catch the fruit; rotate over the user's head and hold it in front of the mouth ready for consumption.
Tomatan was created by Kagome, a Japanese vegetable juice maker. The Wearable Tomato Project is in partnership with Meiwa Denki, a company famous for its unusual musical instruments and other devices.
Kagome conceived of the idea for a hands-free tomato-dispensing wearable when it noticed athletes were not eating the lycopene-rich fruit. In a video uploaded on YouTube (watch below), Kagome discovered the problem lies in the lack of "mobility" of tomatoes.
The video goes on to explain tomatoes are good for those into sports because of its antioxidant characteristics.
"Continuous exercise generates active oxygen that causes the body to rust, but the antioxidant power of lycopene eliminates active oxygen from the body and helps to maintain our healthy physical condition," Kagome informs viewers.
Turn subtitles on to understand the video better:
"Tomatoes have lots of nutrition that combats fatigue," Shigenori Suzuki of Kagome told AFP . The six tomatoes the Tomatan carries are enough to power runners through this weekend's Tokyo Marathon, where the wearable will be debuting.
But AFP notes that carrying the Tomatan around while running is less than practical as it weighs 18 pounds. But a lighter version called "Petit-Tomatan" is also due to appear at the marathon on Feb. 22, Sunday.