Jibo Will Chat With You at Dinner

jibo

One face, one neck, one eye. Jibo is a stationary robot suited to sitting on a table. He weighs 2.7 kilos and can run on battery-power for 30 minutes. So to some degree he can follow you around the house (if you carry him).

The first model, which will ship in 2015, will perform simple tasks like taking voice reminders, fielding phone calls and messages – connecting to the family’s phones through Wi-Fi. He will also act as the heart of the home connecting to iPads, TVs and games consoles. More complex skills include automatically identifying the faces in a room and taking pictures on request and reading a story to a child. New Scientist

I think the key selling point is that Jibo has artificial intelligence and will chat with you. Not conversations where you test the limits of his intelligence, but rather casual chit chat with an electronic family member.

Or will people love using it as their family photographer? See the video:

Or perhaps as an interface to your smart home.

Or to give you telepresence from afar.

Could take off, because they raised $2 million on a $100K goal via crowd-funding a few months back

 

PR2 Robot Plays Pool

For years now computers have been competing against chess grandmasters. Now similar challenges are emerging in physical sports. It isn’t hard to predict that robots will eventually win…

Pool is an obvious choice for robots to tackle. They can take their time. Correct angles are easy for them to compute. Sure, choice of shot is a factor – but with time they will be able to sink just about any available shot.

The PR2 can also:

MAARS – Machine Gun Robot

maars

You could call it a ground drone. This weaponised robot can be controlled remotely at a distance of a kilometre or more. My initial thought is that whoever has a bunch of these wins the close combat contest. Look at the stats:

  • Battery lasts 3–12 hours, and up to one week in sleep mode
  • Top speed of 7 mph
  • Seven cameras, working in day or thermal modes
  • Machine gun with 450 rounds
  • Four grenade launchers with one grenade each (can be tear gas)
  • Loud speaker / siren
  • Laser dazzler
  • Motion detectors
  • Gunfire detector

I guess the problem is that it is not invisible. And it can’t be stealthy, running and hiding. Sure, the first enemy to spot it might be killed – but then pretty much everyone else will just hide until it goes away.

Or they will have traps in place for it to fall into. Or put something in its path like netting or an oil slick. Or run up behind it and tip it over before it can turn its turret. Or jam its comms channel and steal it.

I guess you could call it a ground drone, and being on the ground means that it is vulnerable.

Read more about the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System