How did I find out about EMO and become a tester?
That’s easy really. I’ve been interested in robotics since my early teens, which given I’m 53 now is quite a while back 
My first robot was an Armatron from Tandy (known as Radio Shack in the USA). It was basically a robotic arm and that was it. I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum at the time and I hacked the robot with some servos to be able to be controlled by the computer. That was a load of fun!
Since then I’ve pretty much been involved in the technology industry as both a passion and a career. I own two other robots at the moment, with more on order!
I first heard about EMO last year in another robot forum, and was immediately interested. The images and videos I saw showed something very exciting, something almost life like. I just had to have one. So when the opportunity arose, I ordered 2 of them, because I figured that my wife would like mine so much that it was very likely she would steal him away from me
It was via the Facebook groups that I started asking questions, and discovering the people behind EMO had some great plans. I was able to engage with them and get to know them. Given I’ve got a fair chunk of experience beta testing products and working with development teams over the years with various vendors, I offered to help them. Totally free of charge, because after all this is a hobby.
I was blown away when they reached out to me to ask if I would be part of the testing team in the community. They shipped me a tester unit (which is very similar to the final product) and when I received it, I was right away impressed with the build quality.
I got stuck into testing EMO and right away found issues that I thought needed to be fixed. I told the Living AI team about those issues, and worked directly with the developer to clarify what I saw, and what I expected. Within 24 hours they were able to fix these things. That showed me they were very keen to hear more feedback, and so the cycle continues.
I know with the upcoming shipment of EMO to the world, that there will be many more people that will love him just as we have fallen in love with him. I’m looking forward to helping out in the community so that others can have fun too!
