Peter Griffin
For all the talk over the years of robots in our homes to take the chore out of everyday life, only one has been able to pull it off in any form - the Roomba.
The robotic vacuum cleaner from US company iRobot meanders around your house sucking up dirt and dust, negotiating its way around table legs and returning to its base station when it needs recharging. When I had one in my house I sprinkled flour all over the wooden floors, put the Roomba down and went out for a couple of hours. When I returned, the flour was gone and Roomba was slumbering in its cradle. The thing works, and, at $600, is reasonably priced.
It's encouraging then that the next wave come from IRobot, whose boss, Colin Angel unveiled two new robots at the Digital Life expo in New York last week.
They came with a caveat - one aimed at quashing the expectation that robots are increasingly going to take on human characteristics.
"I'm asking everyone today to say goodbye to The Jetsons, goodbye to Hollywood robots," said Angel.
"That's as likely as us going to live in bubble homes above the ground... and welcome perhaps a little boring looking, but fantastically capable robots."
The Roomba's cousin is the ConnectR, which is strikingly similar in design but with a very different purpose. It has a web camera and a Wi-Fi chip so it can be controlled using a home wireless network.
From any internet-connected computer, the ConnectR can be manoeuvred around your house, its camera displaying a colour video feed from floor level.
It's designed with security in mind - from the office or while away on holiday you can check on things back home, your controls beamed to the ConnectR over the wireless network which transfers the video feed to your internet connection. Control of the ConnectR comes via either a computer joystick, keyboard or mouse. Up to 10 people can access the ConnectR using a PIN number, taking control from their own computers. The camera can tilt, pan and zoom and the ConnectR also has a built-in microphone so you can have internet telephone conversations with people around it. The ConnectR will sell in the US next year for around US$500.
IRobot's other new creation also has a practical application. The Looj climbs into your home's gutters and scoops out silt and leaves. It is remote controlled so once you place it in the gutter you control its progress around your house from down on the ground. A much simpler device, Looj will sell for around US$100.
Angel's Jetsons remark hints at the reality of robotic technology - for the foreseeable future, robots will be employed to fulfil fairly basic functions and their design is dictated on what is required to allow them to move around and on keeping them at a reasonable price point.
Adding communications tools into devices like the ConnectR opens up a whole new world of opportunity, allowing "virtual presence" so you can virtually be in your home, even though you're at work.
More sophisticated robots perform these types of roles with more flourish and the Japanese have created numerous robots with convincing human characteristics - they've made an industry of doing so. But with that, comes a big price tag and a certain impracticality.
So far iRobot has been the only company to get robotic devices into consumers' homes in large numbers. It's done that by keeping robotics simple and within range of middle class families, an audience likely to warm to the ConnectR.
The issue then is what happens when the Roomba and ConnectR get in each other's way on the lounge floor. The Jetsons never had that problem.
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