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Hate folding laundry? There’s a robot for that

WASHINGTON — Doing laundry can be such a chore.

You’ve washed them, put them in a dryer. Not you’ve got to fold them.

At CES in Las Vegas, Seven Dreamers presented a clothes-folding robot, which is a couple of months away from launch after more than a decade in development.

Shin Sakane of Seven Dreamers told the BBC that in 2005, he asked his wife what is it she could really use. She said something that could fold clothes. He thought it was a good idea.

The big machine takes five to 12 minutes to fold a piece of clothing, but it’s the type of machine that you can set and forget.

The Laundroid sorts by either the type of garment or who they belong to. You can place the clothes in the machine, set it, go to work or take a nap, and your clothes will be folded when you return, Sakane said.

Panasonic and other companies invested $60 million on the project, seeing its potential. Sakane said that there have been many preorders for the clothes-folding robot. Sakane hopes to be able to add a washer and dryer to the Laundroid by 2019.

Watch a demonstration of the Laundroid:

China abruptly postpones ambitious Chang’e-7 lunar mission launch

HAIKOU, China (AP) — China said on Sunday it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon. The Chang’e-7 spacecraft was originally set to lift off in the coming days from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on China’s southern Hainan island. The mission does not meet the launch conditions, said the China Manned Space Agency in a brief statement, and “cannot take place during the planned window this year.” The decision was made following a “comprehensive assessment,” the agency added, and was based on the principles of “prudence, reliability and absolute mission success.” It did not further elaborate on the reasons behind the decision.
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