Robots! More robots! And they're in your house! Pasadena firm marks milestone of 2 million sold.Robots of the future will look nothing like R2D R2D Return To Dominate (sports battle cry) 2 in Star Wars, but resemble computer chips embedded Inserted into. See embedded system. in everyday appliances, such as vacuum cleaners vacuum cleaner, mechanical device using a draft of air to remove dust, loose dirt, or other particulate matter from dry surfaces. It is especially useful on highly textured surfaces, such as carpets and upholstery, that are difficult to clean by wiping or brushing. and cell phones, if companies like Evolution Robotics robotics, science and technology of general purpose, programmable machine systems. Contrary to the popular fiction image of robots as ambulatory machines of human appearance capable of performing almost any task, most robotic systems are anchored to fixed positions Inc. have anything to do about it. "Robot applications are not going to look robotic. They will look more like appliances," said Paolo Pirjanian, the company's chief executive. The Pasadena-based company produces vision-based robotic technology. With it, you can point your cell phone at a movie poster, take a picture, and the technology will go out to the Web and download the movie's trailer to your phone. That vision-based search engine has been applied to more than a million cell phones already in Japan through the country's leading mobile carrier, NTT DoCoMo (NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc., Japan) Founded in 1991, NTT DoCoMo is a spinoff of Japan's NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) which provides wireless services, including cellular, paging, satellite and maritime and in-flight telephone services. . The company also has a similar contract in the works through a top South Korean carrier, SK Telecom. Launched in 2001, Evolution Robotics announced last week that it has put 2 million robotics products in the market around the world. Most of those products were marketed in Asia and Europe, but the company is poised to break into the domestic market in the near future. Evolution Robotics also produces locator robots, called NorthStar. One version is embedded in automated vacuum cleaners that have internal locators much like a GPS system. It would work like iRobot Inc.'s popular Roomba, a disc-like vacuum robot that automatically roams and cleans the house, but with added intelligence. That way, it won't just bump into furniture but it will go right up to the edge of a staircase without tumbling down because it knows exactly where it is. Evolution Robotics said it has secured a contract with a national appliance brand to develop the vacuum cleaner, but declined to identify the company. NorthStar is already being used in iRobi, a personal assistant robot manufactured by South Korean company Yujin Robotics. It navigates the house and checks to see if the stove stove, device used for heating or for cooking food. The stove was long regarded as a cooking device supplementary to the fireplace, near which it stood; its stovepipe led into the fireplace chimney. It was not until about the middle of the 19th cent. is off, the door locked, and your child safely tucked in bed. The user can see what iRobi sees from a cell phone screen at any location. Japan and South Korea, whose governments invest heavily in robotic technology, turned to the Pasadena company--still a part of Idealab Inc., an incubator incubator, apparatus for the maintenance of controlled conditions in which eggs can be hatched artificially. Incubator houses with double walls of mud, a fireroom, and several compartments each holding about 6,000 hens' eggs were developed in ancient times; the of sorts for tech start-ups--because of the affordability of its technology. "Japan has a long tradition of research in robotic technology but its programs tend to be more visionary than pragmatic," said Pirjanian, who developed robotic technology for Mars exploration with NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. before launching Evolution Robotics. "American people An American people may be:
Navigation for robots traditionally has been a function of a magnetic track on floors or sensors, both of which are expensive and cumbersome to install in homes. Not so for Evolution Robotics' systems. "Instead, you stick something the size of an air freshener air freshener n → ambientador m air freshener air n → désodorisant m air freshener air n → into an outlet, which creates a micro-GPS zone for your home," said Michael Dooley; vice president of product-and business development for Evolution Robotics. The tiny device, once plugged into an outlet, emits two invisible infrared spots on the ceiling. NorthStar then navigates the house based upon those points of reference. Because infrared is so cheap, the company is able to sell each NorthStar system The Northstar System was Cadillac's trademarked name for a package of automobile performance features. Introduced in mid 1992 on the 1993 Cadillac Allanté and later on that year's Seville and Eldorado, the Northstar name continues in use to this day. to manufacturers at about $10 a pop, including its profit margins, said Pirjanian. Evolution Robotics is only one of many emerging technology companies developing robots for military and hospital use, as well as for toys and personal assistance. Daniel Burrus, a technology forecaster and strategist strat·e·gist n. One who is skilled in strategy. Noun 1. strategist - an expert in strategy (especially in warfare) strategian market strategist - someone skilled in planning marketing campaigns , said the robotics sector is at the cusp of explosive growth, and that's due to three recent areas of development. Computer processing power is at its height, data storage has become so efficient that a robot can run off of a memory on something as small as a stick, and bandwidth allows robots to be connected wirelessly to a more powerful server on the Internet. "Basically, robots can be made very intelligent today at an affordable price," Burrus said. But it's difficult to grasp just how big the market is because it is so young and fragmented, said Dan Kara Kara (kär`ə), river, c.140 mi (230 km) long, NE European and NW Siberian Russia. It flows N from the N Urals into the Kara Sea, forming part of the traditional border between European and Asian Russia. It is navigable in its lower course. , president of Robotic Trends, which hosted RoboBusiness Expo & Conference 2007 last month in Boston. Kara said the world's market size for robotic technology ranges between $1 billion to $5 billion according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. figures from the United Nations Economic Commission, Japan Robot Association and Korea Advanced Intelligent Robot Association. "It's a pretty new market place and the figures are sketchy. It's poised for dramatic growth but someone has to define the market space and apply dollar figures," Kara said. Robotic Trends, an online publication of EH Publishing in Natick, Mass., will do just that. Kara plans to produce a market study that will look first at educational robotics in September then consumer robotics in January. Evolution Robotics' Pirjanian compared the robotics industry to the personal computers sector in the 1970s. "Robotics will impact everyday life the way PCs have, but more dramatically because what PCs basically do is move bits around, but robots move atoms around," he said. BY BOOYEON LEE Staff Reporter |
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