Robot Knocker Taps a Tree for You From Anywhere
Two designers have built a robot that knocks on wood for you from anywhere.
Shashwath Santosh and Nithin Eluvathingal call the gadget the Knocker, a small unit that straps to a tree and taps it on command, according to reporting by Dezeen. The idea was reported on 5 October 2026.
It plays on a familiar superstition. Many people believe that talking about good luck out loud will spoil it, unless you quickly knock on wood.
That is a problem when no wood is within reach. The pair's answer is to keep the wood waiting online.
Each Knocker fixes to a tree with a bright red strap. Inside the boxy unit is a tiny robotic arm that does the knocking, plus a small display screen that flashes a running ticker of every knock it has made.
You trigger it through a web app. Press a large red button marked 'knock on wood' and the chosen unit gives its tree two light taps.
Two taps. That is it.
The app runs over Wi-Fi and talks to a central server, which routes your press to an available device. Eluvathingal told Dezeen the operating distance is 'practically limitless', meaning a user in one city can knock on a tree in another.
The app also shows how many Knockers are currently online. Once you press, it confirms the unit number of the device that answered, so you know your knock landed somewhere real.
The Knockers are designed to be installed as a group, or 'fleet'. That structure lets the system take triggers from several people at once, rather than making everyone queue for a single tree.
The project forms part of a series called Machines Responding to Superstitions. It follows earlier work by the pair under the studio name Kinky Kashayam, which explored superstitions around black cats.
Santosh is a New York-based designer working on experimental machines and Google AI. Eluvathingal is a Toronto-based researcher and programmer currently working with McDonald's Canada.
What makes this stand out is how literally it takes the ritual. No animation. No sound effect. A real tap on real bark, counted on a tiny screen for anyone to see.
