3D Printed Robotic Finger Takes Advantage of The Tinder Dating App System

Prior to meeting my beautiful fiance I tested the waters of the online dating scene, as I was relatively new in town and wanted to meet some new faces, get acquainted with the area, and who knows, maybe meet that perfect woman. In fact, that is actually how it all played out, and I will be marrying her this coming February, after meeting on Match.com.

Being a male in my early 30’s, I naturally have some friends who are still single, and while online dating is a bit more ‘normal’ than it was a mere three years ago, the entire internet dating scene has changed drastically. Now instead of websites like Match and Plentyoffish, the more popular online dating methods have taken over the mobile space.

Tinder has blown up, in terms of use, in only two years. Millions upon millions of singles, and even those who are married (not that I recommend such morals) are using the mobile application to meet their next love, fling, or friend.

One day I was sitting on the beach down here in sunny Florida with a couple of friends. One happened to be on his smartphone repeatedly pressing the screen. I looked over to see what he was doing and his reply was, “It’s a dating app. I’m just liking all the girls on here so that they see me and hopefully like me back.”

On Tinder, users either have to touch the heart icon, or the X under another user’s picture. If the heart icon is selected then that user will see that you ‘liked’ them. If the ‘X’ icon is selected nothing at all will be shown to the other user. Basically, what my friend had been doing was cheating the system. He felt that if he had ‘liked’ all of the women, then he would have free reign to choose from all of the women who had ‘liked’ him back. Spammers also use such a tactic via scripts to do the same basic thing, but spam the other users instead of simply considering them for a date.

One man, named Andrew Sink has taken Tinder “liking” to a whole new level. Instead of using his own finger, or a script written by a hacker, Sink decided to 3D print a robotic finger, the ‘Tinder-O-Matic’, which would do all the “liking” for him, sparing his delicate worn out fingers.

Andrew 3D printed the finger to about the same proportions as a normal human finger. He then used an Arduino Uno and servo motor to control the robotic instrument. He attached a touchscreen stylus to the finger, and then placed his iPhone into the machine. The robot is able to perform one full ‘liking’ motion every four seconds or so. This equates to approximately 900 ‘likes’ an hour, or over 20,000 ‘likes’ if the robot is run for 24 hours straight.

Yes, this is certainly a silly way to use 3D printing, but extremely creative nonetheless. Did I recommend this project to my buddy? Not at all. I figured he might as well put at least a little effort into finding a date.

Discuss this interesting 3D printing application in the 3D printed Tinder-O-Matic forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Check out the video below of the Tinder-O-Matic in action.