As the world's electronic companies scramble to set the agenda for wearable devices, one Japanese vegetable juice maker has gone one better - unveiling a wearable tomato machine for marathon runners.
The Tomatan is a backpack that can be loaded with six mid-sized tomatoes, enough, say the makers, to power runners through a marathon.
"Tomatoes have lots of nutrition that combats fatigue," Shigenori Suzuki of maker Kagome says.
The Tomatan looks like a small humanoid robot - with a tomato for a head - and sits snugly on the athlete's shoulders.
Tugging a tiny lever in the foot moves the arms to catch a tomato from the dispensing shoot.
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The arms then rotate the fruit over the runner's head and hold it in front of his mouth.
"We used about 100 tomatoes to complete this machine," said Novmichi Tosa, of creator Meiwa Denki, a company known for its off-the-wall devices and musical instruments.
"We focused mostly on its visual design."
Despite the eight-kilogram weight, Suzuki recently wore the device during a five-kilometre fun-run.
A runner from Kagome strapped on a lighter wearable tomato machine which weighs only about three kilograms, in Sunday's Tokyo Marathon.
The Petit-Tomatan has a delivery tube attached to a mini-tomato holster worn on the user's back and even a timer that prevents him or her over-indulging.
