Next-gen Robot Toys to Fetch Beer 144
FleaPlus writes "The Boston Globe reports that WowWee Toys, the creators of robots like the hack-friendly Robosapien series, has announced a collaboration with Evolution Robotics. WowWee's next generation of robots will make use of Evolution's tech for visual object recognition and indoor navigation, hopefully with future versions being able to not just entertain, but also 'perform useful tasks such as fetching a beer or even helping to carry the groceries.'"
Nice (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Nice (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nice (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Nice (Score:2)
(Wait for the next revision.)
Re:Nice (Score:2)
Beer handling robots from a toy company? (Score:2)
Re:Nice (Score:5, Funny)
Now I don't need my wife anymore.
You should probably sell her now, before this things come out and ebay gets glutted with used wives, driving the selling price way down.
Bid 1 (Score:2)
Re:Nice (Score:1)
2. But but... what about SEX? Or do you have a string of mistresses in every big city, you sly fox you?
And lastly, RELATIVELY on topic: Nice that it serves beer, but where are the female robots dammit! (and I believe I speak for every lonely
Re:Nice (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Nice (Score:2)
Reminds me of an old joke (Score:2)
Beers != groceries?? (Score:5, Funny)
Is it just me who find it unnecessary to mention beer and grocery in the same sentence, aren't they the same?
Re:Beers != groceries?? (Score:2)
As for sex , umm guys that's what 'mods' are for. No not the
Some servos would be needed to dispense lube and some coding for a more 'intuitive' vibe action however I think we could come up with something.
Only thing I can't get past is the self-cleaning feature I know we'd all want.
Re:Beers != groceries?? (Score:2)
Re:Beers != groceries?? (Score:2)
Re:Beers != groceries?? (Score:2)
What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:3, Funny)
I'll admit it, I am an ignorant American, but I am pretty sure that in most cultures teaching kids that their robot could fetch a beer is not a good thing.
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, then, what's so wrong about marketing to adults? Why does everything have to be marketed to kids?
I'm honestly sick and tired of so much of the culture being so kid focused, there's not much left for the adults to enjoy.
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:1)
Umm. We've got legal porn, cigarettes and alcohol.
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:1)
Granted, only legal in a few states
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:2)
(Tangent warning)
I remember being a kid, and being so pissed off that the world was designed for thirty-somethings to enjoy. When I was sixteen, there was absolutely nothing for teenagers to do besides sit around and conspire against The Man.
Now that I'm older, I'm doubly pissed because all that stuff that I imagined adults enjoying while I was young appears to have vanished, and every
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:2)
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:2)
Or you can just stop being a fool, and open your eyes.
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:2)
You know this is slashdot don't you. Check out thinkgeek.com some time, let me know what you find.
think geek, if you like that endoresement, you'll love my green lazer pics... I just need a green lazer. email me for address.
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:1)
Indeed! Think of the kids! (Score:2)
While they're at it, have em fetch me one too!
Re:What is this promoting for Kids? (Score:2)
That's because in most other cultures, fetching beer for dad is one of the first things kids learn to do.
Patent Pending (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Patent Pending (Score:1)
Re:Patent Pending (Score:1)
Oh so you mean it stops you from getting total beer goggles yet still allows you to turn some bow into wow?
Re:Patent Pending (Score:1)
As long as he keeps bringing them I am OK.
The system you speak of is the "canine-protection system" I will also have patents pending for this.
Re:Patent Pending (Score:2)
The "One-ness" meter (Score:2)
Re:Patent Pending (Score:1)
That's just crazy talk
Re:Patent Pending (Score:2)
Also, I think we can start saying 'convenient as in beer' as opposed to 'convenient as in you're lying'.
Next generation? (Score:1, Interesting)
great, just what we need (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:great, just what we need (Score:2)
Wow! How lazy are we that we need a robot to "fetch a bear, or help carry the groceries"!!! come on ppl, get off your butt and DO something!
When my Slashdot posting bot arrives, expect a long and well reasoned rebuttal to your post.
Re:great, just what we need (Score:2)
Re:great, just what we need (Score:1)
Version 2 also works out... (Score:2)
Of course I'm doing something to be healthy: I drink in a sports bar, ride in a Sports Utility Vehicle, play golf on my PC and wear running shoes around the office.
Re:great, just what we need (Score:2)
Re:great, just what we need (Score:1)
Re:great, just what we need (Score:2)
Of course, beer is a good promo point because it brings humour to the situation, but I'm betting they're not going to be stupid enough to restrict it only to beer-fetching. If it ca
Re:I/O (Score:2)
Re:I/O (Score:1)
Maybe they wouldn't want it. (Score:2)
But before you go, here's an idea for you: maybe, just maybe, those people don't want to be waited on by other people? Maybe they'd prefer to be assisted by machines than to have other people, who have a tendency to be arrogant and self-righteous, do things for them?
Frankly if I was paraplegic, I think it would be far more dehumanizing to have to have another person around 24/7 to do things for me than it would be to have a small army of remote-controlled machines.
just so happens... (Score:1)
Lite Detection Sensor (Score:5, Funny)
A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:1)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:2)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:2)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:2)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:2)
Re:A Violation of The Three Laws (Score:2)
Great (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Great (Score:1)
Whilst working in Abbotsford... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Whilst working in Abbotsford... (Score:2)
Re:Whilst working in Abbotsford... (Score:2)
Re:Whilst working in Abbotsford... (Score:2)
The next gen robots.... (Score:1)
Obligatory joke (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Obligatory joke (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Obligatory joke (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory joke (Score:2)
Um, because.... (Score:2)
You have no idea how much pressure they can bear!
I, for one, welcome our obligitory joke moderators.
Re:Obligatory joke (Score:2, Insightful)
But will it... (Score:1)
Finally! (Score:2)
Finally, a useful robot. Not one of those pussy robots that serve in hospitals, dispensing life saving medications.
Beer (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Beer (Score:1)
But what happens when you run out of beer in the fridge closest to you? if you're that lazy you won't want to take the few steps to the next closest. THATS when you fetching robot comes in handy....
Advantages of a software approach (Score:2, Funny)
Stupid stupid stupid (Score:2)
Sexbot = endless billions in profit
What is so difficult for the robotics industry to comprehend here?
Obligitory... (Score:5, Funny)
Please read previous posts before modding... (apologies to Linquizic ;-)
what exactly does it do ? (Score:2)
fetching a beer from where ?
Does it buy it from the liquor store ?.. or from my fridge ?
Robot that opens and pours your beer (Score:2, Interesting)
Zawinski's Law (Score:1)
"Every robot design expands until it can fetch beer. Those which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."
How the technology works (Score:5, Informative)
The first bit of technology Evolution Robotics will probably be contributing is their ViPR [evolution.com] (Visual Pattern Recognition) tech, which allows for real-time recognition of objects in the environment. It's really quite impressive to see it in action -- it can learn how an object looks using just a single training example, has a high recognition rate, is resilient to occlusion/rotation/scale, and can operate at 15fps on an ordinary computer. It works by efficiently extracting a few hundred SIFT [wikipedia.org] (scale-invariant feature transform) features from an image, and then learns what affine arrangement of them indicate an object. A downloadable demo is available on the ViPR page.
Their SIFT-based ViPR techniques work -very- well on rigid objects, like labels, signs, furniture, cups, and pretty much any sort of static pattern. They tend to work less well on deformable objects, like faces and people.
The other piece of technology is NorthStar, [evolution.com] used for indoor navigation. This uses a projector to shine some IR light spots on the ceiling. An IR-sensitive camera on the robot can see where the light spots are, allowing it to easily determine its location relative to the projector, so it can basically create a map of its environment using projector-relative coordinates.
Re:How the technology works (Score:2)
Offtopic, I know. Sorry. Anyway, thanks for restoring your submission; I, for one,
We're all guys here, right? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:We're all guys here, right? (Score:2)
Great (Score:2, Funny)
Imagine what aliens might think (Score:2)
No.
We create a robot that can fetch you some beer.
I have a gut feeling we'll be seeing something along those lines somewhere in a Futurama... oh wait. No.
WowWee falls short (Score:2)
I still have it, it sits on top of my bass amp where it still looks cool, but it never gets used because it doesn't work worth a damn. My advice to people looking to buy WowWee products is to t
Balance of the sexes (Score:2)
Many years ago women replaced a primary role of men in their lives with a simple motor and batteries.
Undeterred, man has conquered the last remaining requirement for women in our lives. First, there was the microwave and ready to serve meals. Now, all hail:
Beer. Cold. And Free. Now, I mean Free as in Free (Open Beer). Yes. It t
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Offtopic. (Score:2)
Re:2001: PEA (Score:4, Funny)
Re:2001: PEA (Score:2)
Parent probably Arthur T. Murray (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.nothingisreal.com/mentifex_faq.html
Re:Parent probably Arthur T. Murray (Score:2)
He's more like an ultra-crank, and a really persistent one. Just look at this:
Now that's what I call persistence! And one of the best parts:
Re:Parent probably Arthur T. Murray (Score:2)
There should be an Internet top-level domain
Throw in traffic and we're all set.
Re:Parent probably Arthur T. Murray (Score:2)
Interestingly, I tried to create a wikipedia article on him a couple of years ago, but it was too difficult to keep reverting the article after Arthur T. Murray repeatedly vandalized it to proclaim the glories of his work, so the article ended up being deleted. One of these days I hope to recreate the article, as Wikipedia seems to be better equipped to de
Re:Parent probably Arthur T. Murray (Score:2)