Innovation of the week: A robot that folds your laundry for you

"For every problem, someone is trying to sell a solution," said Marc Bain at Quartz. Enter FoldiMate, a robot "whose primary purpose is to fold your freshly laundered shirts and pants twice as fast as you could do it yourself."

Garments are clipped to the front of the machine, which then feeds them into a chamber where they are neatly folded by mechanical arms. FoldiMate can also "de-wrinkle" clothes with steam and "perfume" them as it works. "It's a pricey answer to a routine chore." The California-based company plans to sell its laundry-folding device for between $700 and $850, with shipments not expected until 2018. FoldiMate also can't handle underwear, or oversize items like bedsheets. All the same, laundry loathers apparently can't wait to buy it. Around 50,000 people have already signed up to be alerted when FoldiMate starts taking preorders.

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