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Cell Phone-Controlled Household Robot Revealed
rocannon writes "Cellular News reports that Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a new robot for the home, the MARON-1, as a follow-up for the HOAP-1. MARON-1 is equipped with a wide range of functions including telephone, camera, remote control, timer and surveillance equipment, and can be remotely controlled by a cell phone to operate home electronic appliances or monitor household security."
but can it bring me a beer?
...I was wondering why anyone would want to name a robot a "MORON"
Screw just using my cell phone to control it while I'm not home. That thing would be doing my household work all the time, no matter if I'm home or not. MY VISION OF BEING ABLE TO DO NOTHING IS FINALLY REALIZED. (like the jetsons!)
Who makes you Sig?
Soon people will use remote controlled robots as snipers. Just another example of technology turning on its masters. Stupid humans
.
-a Perl script
The company will release more details at the Japan Robot Conference, which opens on 12 October at Osaka University.
So, I quess more info will be available here in a couple of days.
Maybe the word 'ambulatory' is scaring me off, but I'm pretty sure I'd be uncomfortable with machines trundling around my apartment. :P
It's a neat idea for older homes, though. The kind that can't be fully run as a 'smart house', for example. My ideal would be to have a house where everything could be centrally managed with no need for mechanical assistance (barring the typical activity of getting up and walking about, which I hear is a healthy thing to do, for human beings).
// -- http://www.BRAD-X.com/ --
These things are the MC Hammer of household robots.
Mere pretenders! Usurpers of greatness!
All hail Robie Sr and Robie Jr!
Use the surveillance camera to watch theives steal your robot while you're out.
--
Icerunner
I want a robot that can do more than take pictures of my house and switch channels on the TV. The company Husquarna has an automatic mower, Electrolux has an automatic vacuum cleaner. This is what I want at home. If it can walk the dog and wake me up in the morning too, I'll be really happy.
From these pictures below (Fujitsu.com), it doesn't look like it.
http://pr.fujitsu.com/en/news/2002/10/7.html
Think bigger....most homes that can afford this guy will have elevators. Home elevators have been all the rage for years in Japan.
The subway stations in downtown Tokyo have floor cleaning robots that ride the elevators...pretty funny to see one waiting for the door to open.
Ugly little beastie, isn't it?
Can it keep an IRC channel open?
To have someone to phone up and drop everything to do anything she wants.
:(
Bugger, looks like I'm out of a job
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Wait till the morning shift comes back, and there will be some 100's of "Ha Ha MORON-1 Robots" jokes.
The robot's infrared remote control capability can be used to operate appliances such as air conditioners, televisions and VCRs.
Perfect, so now I'm able to control a robot that can control my TV - Weee the advances of science!
Now I only need a remote control for my cellphone...
"Honey - Have you seen the remote control for the remote control for the..."
Although this is produced by the same company as the HOAP-1, it has a very different focus. The HOAP was developed as a bipedal platform, to allow easier development of walking strategies and to allow developers to test out ideas about human-computer interactions. The development suite was released, and the main target was research groups. The MARON-1, on the other hand, is much more of a high-end consumer product. Instead of cutting edge work on balance and bipedal locomotion, they adopted the tried and true wheel-based design. Instead of releasing the development environment and focusing on research, they gave it a much more basic interface and tried to make it accessible to people without previous robotics experience. The list of features isn't very impressive or cutting edge. What is impressive is the fact that they have developed a platform which is robust and easy to control (or so they claim), in a variety of real-world situations. Although the cutting edge stuff like the HOAP is neat, without a base of real robots being used by real people, the field is just an academic exercise. The real tests of robotics for the near future will be in the areas of human-robot interactions, and in whether robots like this one will be able to fulfill their promises of ease-of-use and versitility.
Well, I'm really looking forward to the day when they find some kind of security hole in these and my robot goes amock. Connecting household-appliances to the outside network in some kind of or the other will probably end up making alot of fun for someone.
=-kiOwA-> EOF
Okay, maybe he wouldn't want one...
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
Well, concidering I room in a house with 4 other tech-guys (we prefer to avoid the term geeks), and we all have cell-phones, this would be the perfect pet for us. Especially since the rental angecy won't allow pets in the house... And I really dislike Aibo, well, maily just Sony, especially after they bought out Hell.
you totally want to fuck her, don't you?
I hope they speak jive like the Futurama police bots. "You call that an antenna?"
You're the racist moron. I dare you to tell us where you're from.
Picking on other people's looks and the way they write in a foreign language is just pathetic. She looks great and her English is OK. I'd like to see you writing as good Greek.
You give us ACs a bad name.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!!!
I didn't know that being teased by groups of small children making fun of its name in singsong was a requirement, but with a name like that, it must have been.
Paging Doctor Branding... you're finally needed again in the O.R.! We've got a droid in critical condition from severe taunting trauma to the nomenclaturus maximus.
Does it have any hidden commands?
Holy Mother of God are you an idiot. I could expound on this, but you are obviously too simple to understand.
rp
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.
Enjoy every day like it's your last. One day you will be right.
A recent fosters advert on UK television had a robot in it. Check it out here. Note that it's about a third of the way down (find the word fosters) - I didn't want to link directly to the movie as he specifically requested people not to...
I think he's from Israel or Turkey. If I had to bet on it, I'd say he's either a native or ex-pat Israeli with some serious mental problems.
Nope. I'm an American. In fact, I take it as an insult when you say I'm Israeli. Of course with the way Israeli organizations like AIPAC or AJC own our Congress, we may one day become Israeli.
And when you get lonely "MANRON" has a special third-input just for you.
<troll>Come to think of it, in some parts of the US, a gun does come into the catagory of household appliances.<ducks and runs/></troll>
hunh?
Or have you ever met a woman who just would like to get laid? No? I thought so...
What if it starts calling other robot-friends? This could be the end of the human world.
It would proberly be good as spare parts for my sendmail (to control from cell phone, although you cant watch throug its "eyes")/web, IR controlled lego mindstorm robot which by now only have the function of pushing every thing around or if the obsticle is to thoug simply try to burn it down.
So, do I get to talk to the robot all I want over weekends and evenings? What if the robot isn't in my calling area - do roam charges apply? Can I make the robot part of my "circle of friends" (or whatever they call it now) and talk all I want?
Hey HEY! Alright! I've been waiting for one of these for YEARS!
A telephone I can control with my.......telephone?
"p2p stabbing is such a vast, untapped market"
Bad news:
With the mention of the cell phone software being designed for DoCoMo handsets, I have a feeling this will be released for the Japan market, and much later, if ever for those of us in the US.
Good news:
Not nearly as multi-function, but arguably more useful is a robot that was just released in the US. Like the multi thousand dollar electolux sold in europe, the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner was just released by the people at iRobot, and is available now at Sharper Image and similar stores. Oh, and it's only $200. PC Magazine has a review.
Also, there's been a robot available for home monitoring and general wandering around in the US for some time called the Cye. It's brain is your PC, but with their advanced kits that include a camera, you can have it do remote monitoring, etc... too. This thing is currently about $3k, but it used to be under $1k!
Anyone have an idea of the estimated price on MARON-1?
Very odd for a Japanese company to name a robotic servant after an ancient catholic ascetic.
How can we afford to ever sleep
So sound again
--ebtg
Steps: 1. Call the MOR(O)AN-1... 2. Dial 69... 3. Done.
I imagine that it can operated by an sort of remove touchtone phone also =]
I'm tired of bombing the universe
See, told you only MOR(O)AN-1's would run WinCE..
So what happens when this thing crashes? Will it program your VCR to record 8 hours of Jerry Springer? Order pay-per-view porn over and over again?
Think about it, Xbox + PVR + MORAN-1. The possibilities are endless of really screwing something up.
Hey baby, do you want to kill all humans?
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Great.... I have to reprogram my phone "dial moron" is already set to call my girlfriend....
Can you just imagine?
apt-get install heineken
To get you a beer, open it, and install it in your hand. My happiness is complete.
\/\/oobie
enter KILL ALL HUMANS mode --- *63
leave KILL ALL HUMANS mode --- *6959392054829194585#3*%!54&43^4984
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
A robot who does anything you want just by phoning? It is called a husband.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
test
It was my senior design project in the Engineering Science department at Trinity University. You can learn more here.
Andrew
Thus spake the master programmer:
"Let the programmers be many and the managers few -- then all will
be productive."
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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