Study Says 4.1M Domestic Robots In Use By 2007

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Study Says 4.1M Domestic Robots In Use By 2007

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 21, 2004 @12:00AM from the let-the-machine-do-it dept.

jangobongo writes "The U.N.'s annual World Robotics Survey for 2004 predicts that there will be a seven-fold surge in household robots by the end of 2007. Robots that mow your lawn, vacuum, wash windows, clean swimming pools, as well as entertainment robots such as Aibo are all vying to take a place in our homes and ease our workload. The study says that Japan is the leader in consumer robotics, with Europe and North America quickly catching up."

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Yup by Xpilot · 2004-10-21 00:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

Just like how they predicted everyone would using flying cars in the 21st century. Yawn.

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1. Re:Yup by Short+Circuit · 2004-10-21 00:08 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  But how many years ahead were the predictions? This study says three years. Weren't flying cars predicted for fifty?
  
  In terms of maturity, the technology behind household robots is a lot closer to producing affordable units than that behind flying cars.
  
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2. Re:Yup by Firethorn · 2004-10-21 00:10 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Well, you take the expansion of the definition of "robot" to mean any microprocessor controlled mobile mechanical device. If you look at many of these "robots", you find that they're more wonders of doing more with less than intelligent or complex programmed behavior. The robo-vac? Psedeu-random movement with a cliff & bump sensor. It runs over a room enough to be statistically unlikely to miss a spot, but it does it at a cost of covering most spots multiple times.
  
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3. Re:Yup by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-21 01:53 · Score: 0, Insightful
  
  Lousier stamina? You're kidding, right? I can walk all day on an apple, your batteries are dead in what, half an hour?
4. Re:Yup by danila · 2004-10-21 04:07 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Yes, but simply because it was the cheapest solution. When you are dealing with small apartments that you can cross in less than a minute, an infrared marker is the easiest thing to do. It would be silly to slap AI and navigational node networks on that robovac, simply to impress the geeks. The KISS principle guaranteed they can make a popular product - they will improve it as time goes.
  
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Another type of robots by Underholdning · 2004-10-21 00:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

They forgot sex robots. Add a bit of movement and AI to a RealDoll and you will have a bestseller.
(I'm only partially kidding.)

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Yeah, right by Tyndmyr · 2004-10-21 00:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

I love these drastic studies... Sure, it might make sense for people to do that, but since when has the general population had more than two brain cells in use at a time?
I predict painfully slow progress in robotics, and a vast increase in tech support when they first become prevailent.

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What is a robot? by Laur · 2004-10-21 00:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

What exactly is the definition of a robot here? Why is a machine that washes your dishes an "appliance" while a machine that mows your lawn is a "robot"? How about washers/dryers (some even have advanced computer control)? What if you put a sophisticated computer in a toaster or a fridge? Where is the line drawn?

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1. Re:What is a robot? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-21 00:27 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Mobility. A dishwasher creates an enviroment, a Roomba interacts with one too.
2. Re:What is a robot? by BrK · 2004-10-21 00:30 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I think it is considered a robot if it can move from Point A to Point B under it's own power and logic control ("logic" might just be recalling a pre-programmed pattern from a storage device, etc). Or also, if it stays in place, but can manipulate other objects about.
  
  An appliance can have a large degree of intelligence, but is generally an object that does not move about after installation.
  
  Ie: a dishwasher that plays chess on a screen is an "appliance". A dishwasher that plays chess by actually moving the pieces about on the board (via articulated arms, etc) is a "robot".
  
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Re:Let me be the first to say... by swordboy · 2004-10-21 00:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

Not so fast - read closer:

The U.N.'s annual World Robotics Survey for 2004 predicts that there will be a seven-fold surge in household robots by the end of 2007.

Hmmm... multiply, carry the one... There it is... in 2007, there will be a grand total of SEVEN household robots.

Nothing times a billion is still nothing. I would hardly call it a surge.

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Re:Simple, the tiniest bit of intelligence. by justinstreufert · 2004-10-21 00:36 · Score: 2, Insightful

For an even closer analogy, my clothes dryer has a sensor in it which detects when the clothes are as dry as I wanted them and shuts the dryer off. I think this would qualify the dryer as a robot, since it has sensors and actuators and responds to stimuli. Of course, that would mean my heating system is also a robot, since it comes on automatically when it gets too cold in the house. Feh.

I think people look at devices that move around of their own accord and they know, "oh, that's a robot." Since appliances just sit there, people will not call them robots no matter how intelligent they are.

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Re:Any different when a human screws up? by nwbvt · 2004-10-21 00:38 · Score: 2, Insightful

You are forgetting the way people think. It doesn't matter if the technology is safer than the old fashioned way, people will still cry foul whenever something goes wrong. Your post even demonstrates this. Having surgery in our modern world is very safe. Much safer than how it was a hundred years ago, and much safer than leaving the problem untreated. Yet in the few instances when something goes wrong, lynch mobs are after the doctors even if what happened was unavoidable.
Do you really think that would be any different if it were robots doing the surgery instead of humans?

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jobs? by Cyno · 2004-10-21 08:37 · Score: 2, Insightful

What will happen to all our jobs if robots automate everything.

In a capitalist society like ours a person is only worth their salt if they provide some valuable labor to society. What will happen to all those people once their jobs are automated. With they be worth any salt?

I personally think that every person is worth more money than we could ever print. They are worth so much because they have within their possession a neural network with decades of programming that allow them to be creative and innovative in ways machines are not yet capable. Besides all that they are human, like me, so they automaticly get a +1 value of anything that is not. However, capitalists don't view the world this way.

I am affraid that these coming robots will displace jobs and the net result will be more poverty which leads to more crime and mental illness.

Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to phase out the existence of money than to attempt to make enough work for everyone to keep busy?

Perhaps if things get bad enough we will become more open minded to these ideas.

Similarly if you want people to be happy don't force them to live in poverty. Want to prevent crime, prevent homeless and jobless environments. Want to stop terrorism, don't shoot their relatives, provide them a better way of live by sharing and giving.

We would be a lot more productive if we didn't spend all our time counting coins, IMHO. What if we invested that time, instead, in building robots and automating labor?