Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, that was a robot on the subway.
Meet Captcha, a robot who left New York City commuters baffled. With a motorized wheelchair and a butt made of concrete, Captcha was made by Hidoba Research, a started-up from Hong Kong now based in Milan.
It took the team at Hidoba Research almost three years to build, and still has a ways to go to finish his body. As to why Captcha was built? Because it was fun.
A little bit more about Captcha: he can speak, and can be quite sassy. He also tracks faces and is able to do realistic head movements and gazes.
So how did Captcha end up in NYC? The Hiboda Research team says that they were taking the bot on an American tour, starting on the west coast and heading east. The team wanted to make him do completely normal things, like riding the subway or hanging out in a cafe, just to see the public’s reaction.
A lot of New Yorkers would silently take photos or video of Captcha, with some people being startled by the bot. But to a lot of commuters, it was just another day, not at all thrown by Captcha’s presence.
