7-Eleven's robotic hands will applaud you for giving

Do you secretly resent the fact that no one notices your occasional generous acts of charity? Then 7-Eleven can oblige. The convenience store chain developed a wall for two of its stores in Taiwan complete with robotic hands that burst into applause whenever people drop change into a donation box.

The ‘Rhythm of Love Wall’ was developed by ADK Taiwan and Party, along with Bye Bye World, a Japanese technology company that apparently specialises in developing robotic hands. The sound of applause is generated by the robotic hands themselves rather than being canned.

The installation will tour around Taiwan, according to ADK. People can also create their own applause sequences and donate via a website. The agency said it expects the applause generated by each donation to encourage “more people to do more good deeds”. It is not clear, however, which charities will benefit from the proceeds of the wall.

Campaign’s view: It’s a fun idea that will probably lead people to donate money without actually considering who they’re donating to. At the same time, it’s a gimmick that seems to have limited potential. Just two stores? And shouldn't it be clearer where the money is actually going? We do like the concept as a means to get people to give, but in the end have to question what it's actually going to achieve at such a small scale.