Dennis Hong, a robotics engineer at Virginia Tech, said research into "soft robotics" was part of a wider trend towards designing more flexible and innovative machines, such as his own "Whole Skin Locomotion" (WSL) robotic mechanism.
Glick 55, came up with the idea for Jinni six years ago after spending 20 years as an engineer at Oracle and Israeli tech company Orca working on building electronic guides for pay TV operators in Europe.