CareBot Reminds You When It’s Time For Jeopardy
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 1 of May , 2009 at 6:34 am
GeckoSystems’ CareBot mobile service robot is a semi-autonomous telepresence system designed for the elderly as an alternative to a nursing home. It’s pretty much just a way, way less slick version of an Anybots QA, except that it’s got a reasonably sophisticated AI under the hood. CareBot is capable of understanding spoken language, interpreting commands, making suggestions based on a known schedule, and even holding various levels of conversation.
Rumor has it that the price of the CareBot is comparable to, but still more than, the price of a small car. Unfortunately, as good of an idea as a CareBot may be, most consumers aren’t going to be willing to blow that much on a robot, preferring instead to opt for the more expensive and less convenient human caretaker.
This, in a nutshell, is kind of where the whole consumer robotics industry is stuck. Most of the time, it’s still faster, cheaper, and easier to have some kid mow your lawn (for example) than to blow hundreds or thousands of dollars on a robot that’s going to need some servo holding to get the job done. And until it becomes just as cheap and easy (or, ideally, cheaper and easier) to get a robot to do it than a human, robot industry growth is going to revolve around the jobs that are either too hard or too dangerous for humans to do at all. Which is great, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t really help robots get into your home to make your life easier. We’re still waiting for the killer app (so to speak) to get that to happen.
[ GeckoSystems ] VIA [ Gearlog ]
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Comment by Joey1058
Made Sunday, 3 of May , 2009 at 8:16 pm
Actually, we’re all still thinking humanoid forms for robotics. Humanoids as home assistants kind of misses the mark. A complete intelligent home is more what is needed. Webcams in every room. The television doubles as main comms. The only arms needed are the ones to load and unload washers, driers, and dishwashers. And maybe make the beds. Oh, yeah, walk the dogs. Of course dust the shelves. Hmm, let me rethink that humanoid concept again…