The Digital Reader

Here’s an early contender for the most ridiculous, useless, and desirable gadget of 2013.

The Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy has gone looking for problems that didn’t need to be solved. Their answer is the Auto Mee S, a palm-sized robot designed for cleaning smartphone and tablet screens.

The Auto Mee S is equipped with 3 wheels, 2 cleaning disks, and sensors that enable it to detect and avoid the edge of the tablet/smartphone. It’s powered by a AA battery and it will take 4 minutes to clean the fingerprints and dust off of a smartphone or 8 minutes to clean a tablet.

This robot serves no practical purpose; you could wipe the screen yourself in only a few seconds. But I have to say that I just love to see engineers designing gadgets just because they want one or because it looks cool. In fact, I would bet that the idea was originally conceived while the engineers were drunk and watching a roomba clean the carpet. “Hey, let’s make one of those for your tablet!”

According to Takara Tomy, this toy will hit the Japanese market in March 2013 with a retail of 1,575 yen or about $17 USD.