video transcript

It's giving new meaning to the phrase 'beauty sleep'. Sleepy the robot painter can interpret the rhythm of your sleep to create a work of art. Budget hotel group Ibis offered 40 guests across Europe the chance to sleep their way to their own personal robot painting. UPSOT: ADVERTISEMENT SAYING 'Combining comfort with technology our masterpiece is to make your sleep a work of art'? Lara Faguais of Accor is running the PR campaign for Ibis. SOUNDBITE (English) ACCOR ADVERTISING AND MEDIA STRATEGY SENIOR MANAGER IN CHARGE OF IBIS HOTELS, LARA FAGUAIS, SAYING: "We can see very clearly if a person is very calm, very smooth, very relaxed during the night, or if the sleep is more animated. So it's very interesting because most of our guests discovered in the morning some surprising results." UPSOT: PAINT BRUSH BEING CLEANED The robotic arm uses data gathered from 80 sensors attached to a mattress pad that measures pressure, heat and sound. Sent wirelessly the raw data is interpreted by Sleepy using an artistic algorithm. The collaboration project involves four companies, including French robotics agency ABB, whose engineer Guillaume Pradels is smitten. SOUNDBITE (English) SALES TECHNICAL ENGINEER FOR FRENCH ROBOTICS COMPANY ABB, GUILLAUME PRADELS, SAYING: "Look at it, it's so cute. I mean, it's a small robot, it's harmless......Robots today are everywhere, including in the arts, so it was interesting for us to be part of it." Sleepy's official name is IRB 120, a modified version of an industrial robot used in factories. Based in the lobby of an Ibis hotel in Paris its subjects never see it and no cameras are used, making the experience completely unobtrusive. The android has developed artistic pretensions....its own signature, for a start. And though its creators say Sleepy's art can't rival that created by humans, they insist the algorithmic amateur has a rare gift for visualising a good night's sleep.