Japanese software company SGI has developed a mannequin robot that can strike a pose for the nearest person by sensing his or her position – and spy on who s/he are and what s/he’s buying.

“It makes the product the mannequin wears look more attractive, increasing consumers’ appetite to buy,” explains robot designer Tatsuya Matsui, who heads Flower Robotics.

Palette uses motion-capture technology to replay the movements of supermodels.

Its maker plans to program it to judge the age and sex of shoppers and identify the bags they are carrying and pass along the information to stores for marketing purposes.

Palette has no face as “consumer attention would be diverted to the face if there were one,” said Matsui, noting he wanted customers to focus on the clothes or jewellery the mannequin wears.

Palette is available in two versions – the whole-body without legs or upper torso models for jewelry displays. The designer intends to make a Palette with legs along with male and child models.

Via IOL.