THIS IS FIELD of Dreams on Korean acid. A middling baseball team in South Korea have unveiled a horde of robot fans in their home stadium in Daejeon.
The Hanwha Eagles have won just eight of their 20 games this season but are making the news for reasons technological. In a futureshock taster, the Eagles approached boffins to create robot fans that will serve as proxies for sentient supporters.
The robots can cheer and sing during Eagles’ games and even stand for that most endearing of fan past-times, the Mexican Wave. The newly minted technology even allows for the fan’s real-life face to show up on a screen on the robots’ face.
Check out the team’s ‘pro-Fanbot’ video here and prepare yourself for some bone-chilling statements such as ‘At important moments, the fanbots encourage group cheering’.
The Rubicon has been crossed and only the fanbots know the way back.
