Robotics: The Utility Wave

A segmented tower on a metal and plastic base swiveled
around. Two glowing segments, suggesting a head, tilt forward and speak:
“Hello. My name is Scoty. Let me explain a few things about myself.”

In a vaguely female synthesized voice-but always in plain
English-Scoty, the latest robot from the robotic-toy maker WowWee,
demonstrates its functions for visitors. Chief among these functions are
managing a personal computer's communication and entertainment abilities,
finding and playing songs by voice request, recording television shows, telling
users when they have e-mail, and again by voice request, reading the e-mail
aloud. It takes and then sends voice-to-text e-mail dictation. It takes pictures
and gives the time when asked.

While its name stands for smart companion operating
technology, “Scoty is more of a companion than operating technologies,” said
Richard Yanofsky, president of WowWee, which is based in Hong Kong. For lack of
a better term, he said, Scoty, which is 24 inches tall, is a 'digital maid.'

Robotics makers and experts say that marvelous mechanics
and electronic intelligence are not enough to lure consumers. Robotic novelties
that could command steep prices from some early adopters are giving way to
lower-priced products (though still rather expensive for toys) that offer
personality, utility or both.

Another good deal is the I-Cat, an 'interactive music
companion' from Hasbro's Tiger Electronics brand, a follow-up on last
year's I-Dog, a robotic dog speaker accessory for digital music players. While
both the I-Cat and the I-Dog are furless and highly stylized, both make use of
colored LED lights that are diffused inside their smooth, seamless, and
translucent bodies. Scoty, whose core technologies were developed by Philips
Home Dialogue Systems in Germany, uses the same approach. Its smooth, segmented
body glows with different colors signifying that it is 'listening' to and
'understanding' requests.

“The overall mission is to find ways of bringing robotics
into useful interaction with people,” said Colin Angle, chief executive of
iRobot, the makers of government and industrial robots as well as consumer ones,
including its Roomba series of vacuum cleaners and Scooba floor washers. Angle
said, his company, which is based in Burlington, Mass., near Boston, is less
interested in selling robots to 'gadget people' than to residents of
“Middle America looking for better ways of living their lives and looking for
a little help.”

iRobot's popular consumer robots are shaped like overfed
frisbees and roll inconspicuously on tiny wheels performing their tasks. Angle
said there was little efficiency in building highly functioning robots in
anthropomorphic form. “It's wildly impractical to do so in any real
sense,” he says for organic-looking robots.

iRobot has till date sold more than 1.5 mn Roombas, which
cost about $300, since they were introduced in late 2002. The company reported
revenue of $142 mn in 2005, a 49% increase over 2004. “The simplicity of the
interaction is one of the most critical things,” Angle said.

Going back to Scoty, Yanofsky of WowWee said that his
company had worked hard to ensure that when Scoty was released later this year,
at a price he expected to be $400, it would be simple to set up and operate.
Yanofsky said that WowWee planned to release additional robotic companion
devices in the coming years. “At the end of the day there will be a seamless
interaction with machines in a manner that will be very close to human
experience,” he says. It is a point not lost on a range of robots heading for
store shelves this year.

Source: Yahoo.com

Compiled by Jasmine Kaur

jasminek@cybermedia.co.in