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CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

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Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#171

Post by joeframbach »

bane wrote: post #5

Here's what I want robots to do: 1) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. 2) Wash and dry my clothes, fold them and put them away completely automatically. These two things would save me hours of work per week. FoldiMate simply isn't even close to being good enough, but I'd be willing to spend about that much for a robot that could do #2. I can vacuum my floor by myself and greet people…

Do you really spend hours on these chores? I can understand if you have one arm, or suffer from narcolepsy, or something else. But most people should be able to clean up after dinner in less than ten minutes, and wash and fold a week's work of laundry in less than half an hour.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#172

Post by jcoffland »

Joeri wrote: post #162
sixdimensional wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I'm not a product designer or engineer, but I feel like I have an idea for #1, and I'm interested in doing it, even for myself. Maybe it's something like "dishwasher v2.0", I 'm not sure. I basically want a standard set of plates, bowls, cups and silverware, which is designed to work with an automated washing box that has slots (or maybe holders) for each to be deposited inside. The idea is, you use the ite…

One life hack I’ve seen and always wondered about that gets you close is having two dish washers and using them as your cupboard. You use stuff from the clean one and put away into the dirty one. Once the dirty one is full, run it and switch directions.

What do you do if you've used all of your bowls but none of your plates?

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#173

Post by dingaling »

Merad wrote: post #152
bane wrote: post #5

Here's what I want robots to do: 1) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. 2) Wash and dry my clothes, fold them and put them away completely automatically. These two things would save me hours of work per week. FoldiMate simply isn't even close to being good enough, but I'd be willing to spend about that much for a robot that could do #2. I can vacuum my floor by myself and greet people…

> I can vacuum my floor by myself If you're in the HN demographic that likes to live in small urban apartments then you may not see value in automated vacuuming, but believe me they are filling a need for many people. My 68 year old mom decided to get one last year, prompted by discussions with several of her friends. She loves it so much that she's become something of a Roomba evangelical - last I checked she's talk…

The main dust-trap in our house is the carpeted stairs. Since I have to drag a vacuum out to do those I might as well do the rest of the house whilst I'm at it.

I suppose I could have a Roomba that I moved up and down the storeys on alternating days, plus a manual vacuum cleaner solely for the stairs, but that seems to be defeating the point of robotics.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#174

Post by crtasm »

cdoxsey wrote: post #137

The next 20 years will be a constant stream of half broken robots and ai systems. At least until we either get them to actually work or we figure out how bad they are and go back to using people again. It will be like setting up video conferencing, except for everything. Your car will go to the wrong place because it failed to account for a leap second, thus breaking gps. Your fridge will put itself in eco mode becau…

>It will be like setting up video conferencing, except for everything.

Nice simile. It made me shudder for the future and I've never even setup video conferencing personally.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#175

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #9
bane wrote: post #5

Here's what I want robots to do: 1) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. 2) Wash and dry my clothes, fold them and put them away completely automatically. These two things would save me hours of work per week. FoldiMate simply isn't even close to being good enough, but I'd be willing to spend about that much for a robot that could do #2. I can vacuum my floor by myself and greet people…

1) Get two dishwashers. Alternate them clean/dirty. Think of them as self-washing cabinets from sci-fi. 2) Get a laundry service or maid service. Save thousands of dollars.

> 2) Get a laundry service or maid service.

Changed my life. I really hated having to do laundry.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#176

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

bane wrote: post #5

Here's what I want robots to do: 1) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. 2) Wash and dry my clothes, fold them and put them away completely automatically. These two things would save me hours of work per week. FoldiMate simply isn't even close to being good enough, but I'd be willing to spend about that much for a robot that could do #2. I can vacuum my floor by myself and greet people…

> FoldiMate

Is this a joke? A machine that, when you take a piece of laundry and after de-tangling each piece (fixing inside-out/sleeves/etc) and then orienting it properly, insert it into the machine in a specific way, will fold laundry in "a few" minutes. All this for the low price of $1,000 USD and they claim to deliver in two years (which we all know will slip).

If this machine let me dump a dry bucket of laundry in the top and came out folded, that might be useful but expensive.

If it let me dump a dirty bucket of laundry in the top and it came out clean/dry/folded, that would be super useful and cheap!

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#178

Post by bigiain »

Merad wrote: post #152
bane wrote: post #5

Here's what I want robots to do: 1) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. 2) Wash and dry my clothes, fold them and put them away completely automatically. These two things would save me hours of work per week. FoldiMate simply isn't even close to being good enough, but I'd be willing to spend about that much for a robot that could do #2. I can vacuum my floor by myself and greet people…

> I can vacuum my floor by myself If you're in the HN demographic that likes to live in small urban apartments then you may not see value in automated vacuuming, but believe me they are filling a need for many people. My 68 year old mom decided to get one last year, prompted by discussions with several of her friends. She loves it so much that she's become something of a Roomba evangelical - last I checked she's talk…

I get a real kick out of getting home after the vacuuming robot has been doing my housework while I'm out :-)

I'd love a similarly simple way to press a button and have my laundry done - I've seen combined washer/dryers, but I'd love something that sorted and folded everything for me...

(Interestingly, I live alone, and do not have any motivation to buy a dishwasher.)

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#179

Post by glangdale »

mahmud wrote: post #51
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Get two dishwashers. Alternate them clean/dirty. Think of them as self-washing cabinets from sci-fi. 2) Get a laundry service or maid service. Save thousands of dollars.

Am I the only one that washes dishes immediately after use? No need to even use the machine. Wash immediately after use, let them dry on rack, wipe and put away. Dishes and laundry are a total non-issue.

Note that this is almost certainly less efficient in terms of time, water use and energy use, than using a modern dishwasher.

The other benefit we find of using a dishwasher in a family is that the dishwasher produces a consistent and good result as compared to a 8-12 year old trying to hand-wash, and kids can be trained to competently unload things if you store plates and glasses "low". So the aggregate effort for parents is almost zero.

I'm thinking that the bulk of people giving advice like yours live in smaller-scale households and don't entertain, or don't entertain in a way that generates any dishes. I think a dishwasher would probably be a bit weird if I lived alone, as it would take ages to fill with dirty dishes and I would probably wind up having to retrieve stuff from it all the time.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#180

Post by bigiain »

dingaling wrote: post #173
Merad wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can vacuum my floor by myself If you're in the HN demographic that likes to live in small urban apartments then you may not see value in automated vacuuming, but believe me they are filling a need for many people. My 68 year old mom decided to get one last year, prompted by discussions with several of her friends. She loves it so much that she's become something of a Roomba evangelical - last I checked she's talk…

The main dust-trap in our house is the carpeted stairs. Since I have to drag a vacuum out to do those I might as well do the rest of the house whilst I'm at it. I suppose I could have a Roomba that I moved up and down the storeys on alternating days, plus a manual vacuum cleaner solely for the stairs, but that seems to be defeating the point of robotics.

I move my vacuum robot up and down stairs as needed. I'm not _quite_ lazy enough to buy a second one for upstairs (but I _have_ considered it, I use an inexpensive Chinese knockoff, not a brand-name-priced Roomba...)
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