Gadget Report [Gadget Freak: Robots for Work and Play - 10/13/2005]

A pretty funny email. -- Ron


October 13th, 2005

Gadget Freak: Robots for Work and Play

PC World Contrib. Ed. Dan Tynan

I'm not a demanding person. All I ask from life is a happy home,
steady work, and a personal robot slave to cater to my every whim.

We're not quite there yet, but the age of household bots has arrived.
There are robotic vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, and floor scrubbers,
plus a boatload of robotic toys. I decided to see what the modern
robotic lifestyle was like.

Pet Project

First I unleashed Wowwee Robotics' Robopet. It looks like the Taco
Bell Chihuahua dressed up as an Imperial Storm Trooper, and has a
herky-jerky walk unlike that of any living thing. Yet the Robopet---Bo
for short---is an impressive piece of technology. Infrared sensors let
Bo maneuver around objects, avoid falling down stairs, and respond to
movements. It can bark, whine, howl, pant, sit, stand, jump, roll
over, play dead, pass gas, and lift a leg as if to mark its territory.
Bo can cycle through everything on command or spontaneously; and you
can order it to do specific tricks using the remote.

After about 5 minutes of nonstop activity, my wife and I were ready to
send Bo to the pound. But not my six-year-old. She loved Bo. To her,
Bo was just like a Jack Russell terrier, but with an off switch.

Robopet is far less sophisticated than Sony's $2000 Aibo pet, which
uses artificial intelligence to recognize patterns and can understand
100 words and phrases. Then again, Robopet costs only $99; simplicity
has its advantages.

For background on the Aibo, read "Aibo Gets a Face-Lift":
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...,tk,grx,00.asp

The Roomba Rumba

Toys are fun, but the real value of robots is in work, not play. So I
also tried IRobot's $329 Roomba Scheduler.

For background on the Roomba, read "New Roomba Vacuum Finds Its Way
Home":
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...,tk,grx,00.asp

Scooba, Roomba's floor mopping sib, should be ready by the time you
read this; for more info, read "A Robot Mop Under the Christmas
Tree?":
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...,tk,grx,00.asp

Just 4 inches high and 13 inches wide, the disc-shaped Roomba
Scheduler scuttles across the carpet like a midget carrying a hatbox,
slipping under couches, bouncing off walls, following a seemingly
random pattern that eventually covers every square inch of floor. When
finished, Roomba scoots back to its docking station and recharges.

A handheld remote lets you schedule cleaning sessions (hence the bot's
name), while two "virtual walls"---small transmitters that emit a beam
of infrared light---let you limit where Roomba will roam. This lets
you tell Roomba to clean the living room on Wednesday, the dining room
on Thursday, and so on.

Creating a schedule was easy: I just picked a day and time, and
'beamed' the info to Roomba and the two walls. Overall, Roomba did a
fine job on my carpets, though power cords tend to get sucked up along
with the dirt. To get Roomba to clean a different room, simply pick
him up and move him.

Yes, I said "him." After just a day, this mindless machine began to
take on personality. He was...cute. According to Greg White, IRobot's
VP of marketing, my response isn't uncommon. He says more than 60
percent of IRobot's 1.2 million customers name their vacuum cleaners.
(My mother-in-law owns a Roomba named "Ruby.")

Unfortunately, White says my personal robot slave is still a long way
off. That's because building taller bots that can handle a higher
center of gravity is a huge technical challenge. Humanoid robots like
Honda's 4-foot-tall Asimo, which cost tens of millions of dollars to
develop, may never reach mass production.

But I have hope. Japan has plans to build a moon base populated
entirely by robots, by 2025:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...,tk,grx,00.asp

So even if I never get my personal bot, my six-year-old---who'll be 26
then---may one day have a robot slave to call her own.

To keep up with the latest developments, visit PC World's Digital
Entertainment Info Center:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/info...,tk,grx,00.asp

Read Dan Tynan's regularly published "Gadget Freak" columns:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/colu...,tk,grx,00.asp


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"Under the guise of anonymity, whether it is on the internet, or on the roadway, a person's true nature will come forward."
-- Me