Slashdot Mirror
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.)"
Man, for $1700 this thing better do military creases.
The World is Yours.
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.
How is THAT a robot? It's a dummy that inflates with hot air(that you have to put the shirts on yourself, no less) that is supposed to save you $1700 worth of your time somehow.
Yeah right.
I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
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.
I see a new feature for RealDolls. Just make their skin a thermoelectric heating element, and...
Shirts pressed while you wank!
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Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
f you get a wife, you can wake to freshly ironed clothes everyday, the bad side, they talk back,need to be fed, and you have to go through a wedding, which is more than $1700, but a wife won't crash or need to be charged hmmm... decision decisions....
I think you mean "girlfriend". Let me explain...
The shirt ironing robot won't blow you. Neither will a wife. A shirt ironing robot won't cook dinner for you. Neither will a wife.
What you need is a girlfriend, you can get your shirt ironed, your meals cooked, and your penis sucked. Wives and shit ironing robots don't even come close.
Yes, I am divorced.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Just like this one, you set a dial for how well you want your bread (shirt) toasted (ironed). You then depress a lever (press a button) and the robot then toasts (irons) your bread (shirt). It boasts an air filter so that the air due to convection doesn't contain any dust or dirt particles to contaminate your toast (shirt). It also has special insulation so that the outside doesn't get scorching hot -- only the internal elements are hot enough to heat the bread (shirt). But the Robotic Toaster is a bargain at only $795, less than half the price of the Robotic Ironing machine.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Ironing
A lot of people mention the rarity of ironing shirts, but while the Slashdot crowd may not, I know engineers, accountants, and businessmen who wear freshly washed and ironed shirts each and every day. If they make $50000 a year working 2000 hours (40 hours, 50 weeks), that's $25/hr. Say they spend 5 minutes ironing a shirt every busines day (~250), that's $520 of life they waste every year ironing. While still not enough to justify having something iron for them, especially as no one measures their life relative to how much they'd make on the job, there is enough savings to warrant consideration by people who iron in bulk, like Dry Cleaners. It may even be useful in a Laundramat (Probably not, but who knows?).
Yet another signature that refers to itself. The irony and humor is dead.
The consumer magazine Test-Achats/Test-Aankoop in Belgium has reviewed this item in its current issue. You can find the full article on their web site, although it is only accessible for subscribers.
In summary, here is what the article says about this "robot" that irons your clothes: the quality of the results is not that good, there are still some wrinkles left in the shirts (this is OK if you wear them under something else, but not if you want to look smart wearing only a shirt). They gave it an "average" rating for the quality, while most of the traditional irons get a "good" or "very good". One of the main selling arguments for this expensive item is that it irons your shirts for you while you can do something else during the 10 minutes that it takes to do its work. But in practice, you need 2 minutes to put the shirt on and 2 minutes to remove it once it is ready. So if you have several shirts this device lets you do something else for one hour, but only in slices of 10 minutes so this is not ideal.
So it does not beat the good old low-tech iron...
-Raphaël
I'm a tailor, and I teach advanced classes about shirts. You don't need this "robot". You shouldn't have to iron your cotton shirts. Here's how to never iron, but have your cotton shirts look like you did:
First, open every button on the shirt and remove plastic collar stays (if any) before washing.
When you dry, cotton shirts can be dried on "hot" in most American home dryers, but I use "medium" when I go to a laundramat because their dryers are hotter.
When you take your shirts out of the dryer, if they feel bone dry to the touch, you've over-dried them. You should be drying them less. They should feel as if they have just the slightest hint of moisture left in them, which should evaporate naturally within about a minute or so. Over-dried shirts will be wrinkly. Properly-dried shirts shouldn't be wrinkly.
If your shirts are dried properly but are coming out of the dryer wrinkly, your loads of laundry are too big. Wash and dry a little less stuff in each load. The general rule is, when you put the wet clothes in the dryer, they should take up a bit less than half the space inside the dryer.
Finally, you should get to the dryer as soon as it stops (not 10 minutes later: right away!) and take out your shirts and hang them up on clothes hangers. Do not use wire hangers, use plastic hangers (such as those available cheaply at Target or Kmart) or wood hangers. Wire hangers can cause the shirt to get funny misshapen wrinkles in the shoulders, which can only be removed by re-washing.
If you do these things properly, your cotton shirts will look smooth and professional with no ironing.