A historic auction. An archive of the world’s first Pokémon card auction co-hosted by the NAO humanoid robot — a live experiment at the intersection of robotics, e-commerce, and pop culture.
The goal was to explore new forms of human–machine interaction in a broadcast setting: a robot bidding-partner capable of engaging with a live chat, reacting to the auctioneer, and running the event alongside human co-hosts. The initiative was recognised by the Cabinet of the French Presidency, which sent a letter of support highlighting its innovative character.
Despite the technical demands of live production, the event stands as a milestone in the use of social robotics for live commerce.
3h
Live duration
5 PM → 8 PM Paris
1,693
Peak viewers
on Voggt platform
60
Live bidders
47
Cards sold
Teaser
Presidential endorsement
In the aftermath of the event, we received a letter from the Cabinet of the President of the French Republic acknowledging the project’s pioneering character and the public’s enthusiasm around this novel use of humanoid robotics for live auctions.
“A pioneering initiative at the crossroads of technology, commerce and culture.”
Letter on official Présidence de la République stationery. Click to enlarge.
What we built
- NAO live integration. The robot was scripted and remote-driven during the stream to comment on cards, react to bids, and banter with the human co-host.
- Chat-aware behaviours. Real-time hooks between the Voggt chat feed and NAO’s speech/animation pipeline, letting viewers feel directly addressed.
- A unique technological proof of concept. End-to-end: camera setup, OBS pipeline, network redundancy, robot control stack — all running live for three hours straight.
Gallery
Full replay
The full 3-hour archive of the live stream, including all interactions between NAO, the co-hosts, and the live chat.
Credits
- Co-host & concept
- Max Lesage — designer & auctioneer
- Robotics & technical design
- Ammar Kheder — NAO integration, live pipeline, scripted behaviours
- On-set team
- Laurent and the event crew
- Platform
- Voggt — live auction streaming
- Robot
- NAO by SoftBank Robotics / Aldebaran