Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/19/look-at-this-complicated-robot.html
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I worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway when I was young ( the 1970s ), and my Dad was a dispatcher there for many years prior; they had a device that was used to remotely sign train orders . It was used only when situations compelled, but my Dad had used it. It was a purely analouge device, dating from maybe the 1930’s. The dispatcher would write on a tablet that looked like an invoice dispenser small business used in the 1950s: the ‘other end’ recipient would hold the document positioned under a stylus and the signature would be recreated in real time. I found the whole idea rather bewildering. You couldn’t confirm what you actually were signing, but apparently had legal standing. I worked for the telecom subsidiary of the Canadian railways later; these devices were still in use (or available for use) at least into the 1980s . The office I worked in had an area that was kind of like a museum, devoted to supporting the legacy equipment. Giant meters, Wheatstone bridges, open wire carriers… Later Margaret Atwood patented a similar device that worked over the Internet (thus digital) that was used to remotely autograph books.
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Wow this sound amazing, I would love to see one in action !
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It’s a complicated postage meter, isn’t it?
Made with a robot is way cooler, but you can go electromechanical and make an automated stamp machine.
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These are commonly used to sign laws and other official documents. Apparently preserving the formality of an actual signature now that a single piece of paper isn’t the whole of then record.
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That’s it… I remember trying to to find a reference for this when Margaret Atwood patented her device but couldn’t. The internet was much younger then 
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That device pictured has a very cool 1960s high tech look. I remember my Dad had a rubber stamp made in the form of his signature, but I’m sure that would have no legal standing, unlike this device apparently has.
A dumpling robot would be cool… but skip the self-awareness.
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I already have the scanner-- so how much for the arms alone?
I work at a Japanese company. Just yesterday, I was translating a Word doc to which the author had applied a digital hanko. It wasn’t just a canned image–it had the date in the image, so there’s clearly custom software for generating these on the fly. I haven’t looked into it further yet.
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Well I think even a check mark has legal standing. E signatures certainly do. The whole autopen thing exists because it’s almost indistinguishable from a real signature, since the machine is basically doing what your hand would. The big tell is that the signatures it produces are identical each time.
The whole idea with these things seems to be to produce a “signature” when one is desirable for non legal purposes. Its like this little fiction for situations where a signature isn’t a practical necessity but we’d like one anyway.
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What’s shown in the demo video is way more moving parts and much slower than actual dumpling making machines.
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Now this is the important part: Kokotama execute contracts by pulling down their eggy pantaloons to reveal the hanko (seal, chop or stamp) they have on their bums. Which they then use to “sign” the contract.
Whew! I read that as “e-cigarettes”, struggled for a bit on closing the loop as to how these signature automatons were going to have an impact on vaping uptake.
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Obama used the autopen to sign a couple of bills–
though why he didn’t use a esignature is beyond me
https://www.edn.com/president-clinton-e-signs-digital-signature-act-june-30-2000/
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I’m not sure about that. Back when my Mom was a notary public (I long thought it was a nota or noted republic), she had an embosser for signing things but these days notary publics tend to use rubber stamps.
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There is a really quick glimpse of the machine on this video !
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