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Evolution Robotics' ER1 Reviewed
Anonymous Coward writes "A useful review of Evolution Robotics' ER-1 by the boys at Techfocus. It covers: construction, customization, hardware requirements, best features, programming, durability of equipment -- and all that good stuff.
One interesting factoid is that the robot can recognize objects until the object is blocked - up to 40% - by something (like a piece of furniture). Techfocus aptly points out the Orwellian implications... Another thing that rocked my world is the notion that the robot is not as much of a drag on CPU as one might suspect. TF ran the unit on an NEC Versa VXi running Windows 2000, with a 900mhz CPU and 128mb of RAM, and encountered absolutely no problems. Encouragingly, if you want to further customize your robot, why not just write a script in C or Perl -- the manual even points users toward an app primarily based in Linux.
What's not surprising: it's pricey. Also some nice pictures of how the robot really looks right out of the box."
"I have yet to walk down my street and see a mowing robot or visit a friends house and see a robot cleaning the windows."
That's because I'm walking down the street a block ahead of you and kidnapping them to add to my evil army of homicidal housecleaning gardening robots.
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Techfocus aptly points out the Orwellian implications...
robot: TARGET RECOGNIZED. PINCHERS ENGAGED
me: OH NO! IT'S DELICATELY PINCHING MY ANKLES. DAMN THIS POLICE STATE I LIVE IN!
Puh-lease. The image recognition will only be Orwellian to my cat, and *everything* is Orwellian to cats.
*everything* is Orwellian to cats.