• On TechRepublic: Five super-secret features in Windows 7

Vision for the robotic future Video

To play this video, you need Javascript enabled and the latest version of Flash installed. Install Flash now
Vision for the robotic future
Created: 10/29/2007
Video description: From the RoboDevelopment Conference and Exposition in San Jose, Calif., CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos takes a look at the show's most impressive robotic developments, including a robotic hand for the disabled.

Vision for the robotic future Video Transcript

^M00:00:01 [ Music ] ^M00:00:05

>> A death-blind person like Helen Keller could actually feel at times; I have a computer in the box that translates keyboard stroke. I'm demonstrating a lightweight construction technique and hopefully I want to build the whole robot. It's made out of plastic joints so the knuckles or the joints are actually springs.

>> We look at user interfaces, software for robots, so making them intelligent.

>> This is an exploration Rover built to simulate a few scenarios. We just spent the summer in the Arctic so we actually took really high resolution 3D laser scans of the topography. This is called the Gigapan and it's actually a commercial unit we're developing. We want to get these out into the public so that people can take panoramas of their environments and share them. You can put pretty much any commercial point and shoot camera in there.

>> This guy here essentially is where we're demonstrating an alignment, so essentially this is from a stationary camera can tell the shape of this and then as the robot moves such that it aligns perfectly with the direction that it's supposed to go. One of the big problems with robotics is where you point it, and so what you want is an overhead camera looking down or looking at the robot and identify the robot in a unique way and identify oh this is pointed in this direction, there's an operator.

>> You can just see behind the curtain that he's controlling Monty and so Monty can do almost anything a person can with just some limits on dexterity. The big thing is robots in the home; robot butlers to do your laundry, cooking and cleaning. When they're driven remotely by people that doesn't require any technology that we don't know how to build.

>> Talk about stuff around the house which is basically Rosie the robot doing your dishes, clearing your table, washing your laundry. The second category is called service applications. It's pick and pack, it's back office stuff, it's ready for Starbucks. The third category that's probably the nearest term is helping with disabilities and helping aging populations; in human environments having roughly humanoid average manipulation ability is good.

>> Robots can kind of follow the ball so this is a 7th degree of freedom robot. It's got 7 joints and the strength of our software is that it works modular and can work with any robot, any number of joints.

>> And more and more as you're looking at the voidance regence. Being able to have robots work more closely with humans you need to have good voidance and things like that. ^M00:02:40 [ Music ] ^M00:02:43

Related Videos

RoboGames: a fight 'til the death

It's the Robot Fighting League's largest contest and CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi has a look at the action. Teams from Australia, Brazil, and elsewhere around the world battle for robot glory.

RoboGames feature robotic wizardry

The RoboGames competition, which pits bots from around the world in more than 70 challenges, hit San Francisco during the weekend of June 15. CNET News.com's Zamir Haider was on hand to speak with robot builders competing in the combat challenge.

iRobot's new Roomba gets put to the test

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos takes a look at iRobot's new Roomba 560, and gives it a cleaning challenge.

From Japan: Next year's gadgets

Toshiba, Panasonic, Hitachi and others gathered earlier this month at the Ceatec trade show in Japan to show off their new and future TVs,\r\nMP3s players, phones and household robots. Think of it as a preview of the Consumer Electronics Show. CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos brings\r\nback this report from the floor of the Makuhari Messe outside of Tokyo.

Fly your own remote-controlled robot

From CES 2007: CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos gets a demo of a few different models and speaks with Wow Wee's Vice President of Sales, Art Janis, about the company's goal to create affordable robots.

Create your own robot

From CES 2007: Bryan Adams, an iRobot senior researcher, gives CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos a demo of the iRobot Create, which lets users hack the popular hardware and program their own robot. Watch an example of what the robot is capable of as it attempts to find a piece of foam and pick it up on its own.

Electric car hits 130 mph

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos was on hand for the public unveiling of the Tesla Roadster in Santa Monica, Calif. Hear from one of the designers about the look and feel of the car, and strap in for test drive. Hitting 60 mph in four seconds never sounded like this before.

See cell phone technology in progress

From the launch of the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif.: CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos speaks with research engineers about the technology they're developing in conjunction with Nokia and Stanford University.

Is Zeno the future of home entertainment?

Zeno, a humanoid robot with a $300 price tag, is set to be released in 2009. CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos takes a look at a prototype and asks why this one may be different than others that have come before it.

Go forth and mop

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos brought a Scooba from iRobot to its Domestic Research Labs (otherwise known as the snack room) to watch it suck up Diet Coke, eat pretzel crumbs, and take on the soda machine.