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president barack obama in a japanese robot chairPresident Obama is on a visit to Japan this week to attend an economic summit, but he found time to meet with a delegation of humanoid robot ladies and baby robot seals. The best part, though, is that Obama got to test out an awesome, futuristic robot wheelchair.

Presidents and wheelchairs have historically been a bad mix, but if FDR had gotten his hands on one of these bad boys, he could have appeared in public with impunity. Seriously, can we install one of these in the Oval Office? Obama would be like the Professor X of presidents (and you know the nerd-in-chief would get that reference).

It's kind of hard to do any cool stunts when you're being supervised by a gaggle of engineers. I'm pretty sure it's against Japanese custom for a visiting head of state to pop a wheelie in someone else's robot chair, anyway. If Obama had his own, though ... can't you just picture the ramps he'd set up in the White House garden? We can only dream of such a beautiful future.

In all seriousness, though, the "robot chair" is a concept car called the Toyota I-Real, and it might actually be available to consumers in the not-so-distant future. I want one!



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