I-Fairy Robot leads Japanese wedding
Most of the surprise over this Japanese wedding ceremony performed by a four foot tall robot called I-Fairy is centered on the unusual officiator; I'm more surprised that a bride allowed herself to be overshadowed on her "special day". On a day where people have been maimed for wearing nicer shoes than the bride herself, Kokoro – the company who produce the robot – were brave to put the roughly $70k 'bot into such danger.
Actually, the bride herself works for the company and wanted to use the wedding to show how readily robots can integrate into peoples' daily lives. "I always felt that robots would become more integrated into people's everyday lives" Satoko Inoue told reporters, "this cute robot is part of my company, I decided that I would love to have it at my ceremony." I-Fairy more normally is to be found helping museum visitors find their way around the exhibits.