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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."
...I was wondering why anyone would want to name a robot a "MORON"
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.
Use the surveillance camera to watch theives steal your robot while you're out.
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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.
Ugly little beastie, isn't it?
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
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.
Ha Ha I HOAP not
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?