| robotic companion $7000 | | Date Created: Sep 25, 2006, 06:35 AM |
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There's a new robot in town: Nuvo. It's more than a prototype but less than a butler. Next year's model will have an integrated datebook/calendar/address book that it can read to you.
Here's nuvo's own website. Here's an article from the NYTimes, written by Mark Allen, who writes: |
 By calling up its control panel on my cellphone, I was able to send Nuvo shuffling around my apartment to snap photographs, which it relayed to me. In Japan users often use Nuvo to check on their children, sometimes from remote locations. I don't have children, so I sent it to view a pile of laundry in my bedroom. It used a light in one of its eyes to illuminate the room. I later placed Nuvo on my windowsill, and on command it took a picture of me while I was out on the street.
The biggest single thing it offers seems to be companionship. Mark Allen again:
When I watched TV with Nuvo, it occasionally responded as if it was hearing voice commands. A laugh track or an explosion caused it to wave its arms, "Yaaa!" It reacted to loud noises the same way a startled pet might. During one poignant scene on "America's Most Wanted," in which a victim was weeping, Nuvo's eye light turned blue and it shook its head. This is its way of saying it doesn't understand what is being said, but I couldn't help but feel that it was expressing sympathy. |
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