Robot vending machines, again!

I must be ahead of my time. Here’s a link from SingularityHub.com about Pepsi Cola’s newest social vending machine! Yeah, a social vending machine! Here, I’ve been ragging about Coca Cola doing this, and Pepsi sneaks up on me and does this. It doesn’t talk, per se, but it’s a HUGE step in the right direction! At least somebody is listening to me. (I think).

Asimov’s Three Laws

Just to refresh the concept, Dr. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics aren’t real laws. They are a literary plot device. Dr. Asimov knew that there were work arounds for them. He always found reasons to work around the three laws in his robot stories. What you WILL find to be true is this:

1.Robots are machines. Machines, like humans, age and break down if not properly maintained. A faulty machine will injure or kill the first person that is careless.

2. Any military that uses robots on a field of battle will have some type designed for defensive/offensive combat. If you don’t want to be killed by a military robot, stay out of it’s line of fire.

3. Hobby robots made out of sturdy plastic will bite your fingers just as hard, if not harder, as metal when you grab them in the middle of program execution.

In the recent movie Astroboy, the robots mention in passing about Asimov’s three laws. “You know, a robot may not injure a human, yada yada yada.” The laws have no effect on these guys. And if you think they should, you need to stay away from your blender. You might like the number of fingers on your hands.

Coke bot

Abra a Felicidade Coca-Cola

The link is of a robot serving up dessert and a Coke. Okay, I’m kind of pissed. A couple of years ago I blogged about Coca Cola being able to put out robotic drink machines that at least interacted with you. Have they listened to me? NOOOOooooo…. So today I find the above link via www.botjunkie.com . Yeah, it’s a commercial in Brazil. So if they can sponsor robotics in Brazil, why can’t they put out a robotic Coke machine on the city streets of America? Hmm? You know they know the tech exists.

Hey, Atlanta, are ya listening? Helloooooo…….

C/Fe

C/Fe. The periodic table of elements codes for Carbon, and Iron. Isaac Asimov first used the combination in his book *The Caves of Steel*:

“See fee? What’s that?”

“Just the chemical symbols for the elements carbon and iron, Elijah. Carbon is the basis of human life and iron of robot life. It becomes easy to speak of C/Fe when you wish to express a culture that combines the best of the two on an equal but parallel basis.”

“See fee. Do you write it with a hyphen? Or how?”

“No, Elijah. A diagonal line between the two is the accepted way. It symbolizes neither one nor the other, but a mixture of the two, without priority.”

The concept is humans and robots working side by side. An old friend of mine back in 1977 coined the phrase “men and machines working together”. As far as I know, he never read *The Caves of Steel*.

I would have loved to know Isaac Asimov personally. I could have talked robots with him for hours, I think.

Bots and automation.

The more I think about automation, the more it makes sense to me. Robotics is the same. Of course the two are rather hard to distinguish between. For years I’ve been looking forward to having my own personal robot. But as the technology advances, a general consensus is forming that personal robotics won’t consist of a single “do it all” machine. There will be a plethora of devices that will operate invisibly aound you, and appear only when you seek it out.

Think about it. Today we’re at the point where a lot of automation is going on in the background of our everyday lives. Not a lot of big, noticeable machines. Rather, dozens of inconspicuous single function devices. Possibly several dozen in your workplace alone. Off the top of my head, where I work, there are roughly fifteen automatic procedures, and “set it and forget it” items. Or to use the term the manager does, “bots”. I blogged about that before. In the average home there are clothes washers & dryers, dish washers, programmable thermostats for fuel efficent furnaces, and most recently, “smart” kitchen ovens and ranges. Refrigerators will be next. The trick there will be the home network.

In the wider world, here in the UP of MI, traffic flow is regulated by simple sensors embedded in the roads. “Auto”-mobiles are getting smarter all the time. Sensors in the keyrings will ID who you are. From there, a crapload of functions happen. Did your spouse or kid drive the car last? Either pressing the “unlock” button on the palm- sized remote, or even placing the key into the lock will instantly readjust the driver’s seat to your preferences. Put the key into the ignition, and the GPS will ask “where to today?” They e-mail you now to let you know of service needed. And eventually they will be able to drive themselves, using GPS, and following the lines painted in the road. In Vernor Vinge‘s book, Rainbows End, autos simply line up and wait for passengers. You don’t need a car? Surprise, the roads are clear for pedestrian traffic. But look for one, and within just a few minutes a car is waiting on you! Cars will perhaps be the closest to personal robotics that was predicted decades ago. That, and children’s toys.

Toys will be hugely automated. Pick a favorite character: Elmo. Have you seen the Elmo live toy, yet? How about the Golden Retriever? No? Well, then, there is a hobby horse that does pretty much the same thing. Everythng responds to touch sensors. Remember Furby? Toys WILL be the “go fetch me a drink” item. Nothing taller than three feet. And of course everything connected to your home net. “Robotoy, I want a beer.” the home net hears your request to the toy, and as the small bot waddles to the kitchen, the fridge scans its contents, asks via an active speaker, either the TV, Stereo, PC, or cellphone, “Bud or Miller?” Depending on how much the toy waddles, you might want to wait a few minutes for the can to settle before opening it.

On the horizon is a really cool technology called “augmented reality“. There are several applications for it already. But the one that is gonna break wide open is interactive characters. Japan has already put its foot in the door with an item called ARis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCCx7zANsGE

http://geishatokyo.com/jp/ar-figure/

From this point, computing tech will do a paradigm shift. Complete emphasis on the cloud. And wearable hardware. That’s when AI will really come into its own. And I’ve always believed that AI is hardware independent. Intelligent robotics. Which kind of brings me full circle for this blog.

personal robotics

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Anyway, my subject is personal robotics. Lately I’ve been reading posts on www.deviantart.com about how people would like a bot that fits in your hand. Seeing that the trend is having affordable robots connect to the web via the local network for processing power, it is entirely possible. Larger bots would be limited to industrial, commercial, and household tasks. The little critters will be about the size of a cell phone, and have a USB connection for a power hookup.

The trick will be not losing them like phones and PDAs during the course of the day!

BTW, scroll thru my posts to read about a cell phone robot.

Cellular phone robot

http://robotgossip.blogspot.com/2007/01/cellular-phone-robot-cpr.html

The link is to a little item in development in Korea called a cellular phone robot. It looks impressive to me so far. The thing has several features that most simple robots have now. The video explains it all. When it goes to market, I’ll be looking to buy one!

Entry for February 19, 2007

I’ve taken my “October Moonbase” offline for a bit. Physical Reality isn’t cooperating with me. Neither are finances. It’s kind of hard to build a moonbase out of LEGOs when you can’t afford to buy ‘em. I’ll announce when I have it back up.

On an unrelated note; we have a gizmo at work that pumps a soapy chemical similar to Rid-X thru the pipes to the outside grease traps. It’s a very simple affair. A timer, battery pack, and pump. That’s it. The reason I mention this, is a couple of weeks back the thing wasn’t working, so I had changed the battery pack. It also turns out the timer was turned off. Well, a few days ago the manager asks me if the “McFree bot” was working.

Bot?

Now I would NEVER have considered that thing a bot. But part of a defination of robotics is automation. And the pump is definately automatic. Not autonomous. but automatic. Yes there is a chip in place to run the show. But, I mean, c’mon, it’s a simple mechanism. There is a mindset change happening in society. What I think of as a gadget, others are now calling a bot.

Robotics is definately on the move, to loosely use a term. One day in the VERY near future, we’re gonna be seeing these machines and not pay them any mind. Until one day you’re out of a job. They won’t take over the world. They have no use for it. It’s physical. Their domain will be virtual. All you need to do is hit the off switch, and they’re nothing but so much plastic, metal, and silicon. If you ever come across a machine that has learned to put it’s power switch in front to protect itself, then we’ll have problems.

No, I’m not going to be around when the machines are smart enough to replace people in mass. But the people that WILL be around are already entirely comfortable with the concept of burger flipping machines and a colorful speaker inside the lobby of the local fast food place with a perfect electronic voice offering you choices and specials.