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Robots That Serve Beyond The Vacuum
Tim Brown of Mobile Robotics writes "While everyone has been debating the abilities of new robotic vacuum cleaners and their varying price tags, Siemens has quietly announced they have developed a 'Dressman' robot that will iron your clothes! (my least favorite household chore). Rumoured to be priced at US$1700 it seems expensive for an iron. But it appears that the Roomba's best work might be that it is ushering in a new era of innovation in home products. (Note very cool picture with the article.)"
More or less, I'm your average geek. I telecommute, but my state of dress on any given day is not much different than when I worked in an office. That being said, how often do men really need to iron their clothes?
I don't recall ironing a single piece of clothing since my job interview more than four years ago and that is the only time I've used an iron in my twenty-seven years. Hell, I only even own an iron because an ex-girlfriend needed it for her clothes - and I needed it for an upcoming project which including using an applique.
Still, if you're a snazzy dresser and you wear clothing that tends to need ironing and you're a single person, I suppose this is a decent product. Especially if you have the money to burn.
It really seems that this device (which reminds me of those punching-bag exercisers I've seen on television a couple times) is geared more toward the garment pressing industry than a home-user.
Personally, the only robot I'm interested in is a sex-slave android and I don't think we'll be seeing any of those in my lifetime.
How about instead of spending $1700 on a robot, just take your clothes out of the dryer and hang them up quickly enough that they don't have time to wrinkle?
It works for me...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
is a robot that will pickup, wash, dry, iron, fold, and put away your clothes.
As well as wash, dry, and put away your dishes.
O yeah,
Mow the lawn and wash the car while its at it.
That way I can use all my spare time exercising.
And what about autonomy? I expect an apliance that is in the category of "robot" to be able to take a pile of clothes and end up with a bunch of shirts on hangers. After setup, Roomba needs little assistance to get the job done where this device needs an operator for every shirt.
If this is a robot, then so is my dishwasher, clothes washing machine and even my blender.
TW
Man, for $1700 this thing better do military creases.
I've always loved the idea of home robotics, but at $1.25 a shirt, I can get 1360 laundered at the local dry-cleaners, and get then with heavy starch applied, hung on a hanger, and put in a plastic bag.
Assuming one shirt per day, everyday -- and some days I do just wear a T-shirt -- that's more than three and half years worth of ironed shirts, with my labor limited to taking them to and from the cleaners -- and with no need to wash the shirts myself.
The idea of inflating a dummy and drying the shirt from the inside out is great "outside the box" creativity, and I give the inventor credit for it. But that method doesn't crease the sleeves properly, it doesn't iron the collar, and I'm thinking that it may result in the placket at the back of a dress shirt bulging out at precisely where you want it creased.
So it's a great idea that doesn't really substitute for ironing, and is too expensive. Much as I'd like to encourage this, it's a solution in search of a problem.
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