The cardboard box solution: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7y2n0fOhw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7y2n0fOhw</a><p>The industrial solution: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgHEz05lqw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgHEz05lqw</a><p>A black box that just as well can be Searle's chinese room: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7apeh4tjsgI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7apeh4tjsgI</a><p>I think however the wrong thing is optimized here. I don't care about the folding. I do care about the steaming. If I could steam it at home, that would be awesome: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_q-iDj6U3M" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_q-iDj6U3M</a>
This is not very impressive. I want to be able to dump an armload of clothes hot out of the dryer into a hopper and forget about it. Having to sort and hang the clothes on those clips (of which there don't appear to be very many) is more than half the work!
From the FAQ, (emphasis mine):<p>> There is <i>less than a 1% chance</i> that FoldiMate will do anything other than fold your laundry and treat your clothes.<p>Let's be generous and say that less than 1% means .5% chance. Assuming each clothing fold is an independent event, that means if you fold 20 articles of clothing then you have a 90% chance of not destroying one of them[1].<p>I like those odds!<p>[1]: (1 - .005)^20 = 0.90461048
Is it just me or does this look very sketchy/like vaporware? They start off clipping the shirts into those things and then they flip to a CGI render, suggesting they don't even have a working prototype, and yet they're already accepting "pre-orders." For a startup that was started in 2012 (and the founder is listed as one of the seed investors) this seems like worryingly little progress.
Yeah, I hang up my clothes, so...<p>If you want to save a crapton of time on doing laundry, throw out all your socks and buy the same kind. I standardized on UndeR Armor Resistor. Cheap, last about a year, seem to stay in profuction forever. If every household member does that, you never have to play the sock pairing game again.
It doesn't really take very long to actually fold shirts and pants, most of the time is spent on sorting. I would think in the amount of time it takes you to properly clip a shirt onto the machine, you should easily have folded it yourself.
There are already a, proportionally, lot of comments of the sort "this doesn't save <i>that</i> much time" or "folding doesn't take <i>that</i> long".<p>Then, don't buy it. But to suggest that, in America, land of the Snuggie, The Clapper, Feet Socks, and single serve automatic coffee brewers, come on. There is a place in the market for something that makes doing laundry a little less misserable.
While this is pretty interesting, the machine seems pretty bulky. I also wonder how accurate you have to be with the way you hang up the clothes on those clips. I'm sure if you're a little off the clothes won't last right. The other drawback I notice is that it seems this only folds tops. Pretty pricey and bulky for a one trick pony.
<p><pre><code> > We start with a neat, professionally looking fold
> * More methods will be available via FoldiMate’s “internet store”
</code></pre>
That's potentially interesting; are we basically talking about software unlocking of capabilities here, i.e. like Tesla's autopilot?
If someone could create a machine that actually put the laundry away, we'd get one (or at least covet one) in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, for our family of five, the folding part of the operation really isn't where most of the labor is.
I always used 'laundry folding' as a counterexample for fears of automation. This clumsy machine is case is point that pervasive automation is far far far away.
There's also Laundroid announced last year that can supposedly fold your clothes without hanging it first. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7apeh4tjsgI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7apeh4tjsgI</a>
This isn't satire? I thought I'd come to the comments to see comments about it.<p>It's a real potential product? The WSJ reviews like "I'm going to save up for the FoldiMate! That's what I am waiting for." is REAL?<p>...
If we solved self driving. It may be possible to place all your clothes on a tote and have a robot pick all your clothes and take them to an automated washing, drying, ironing and folding facility.