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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

#241

Post by kingosticks »

bigiain wrote: post #184
glangdale wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

Household of one checking in. I eat at home maybe 6 or 8 times a week.If I eat breakfast at home, I'll usually just drop the bowl or plate int he sink and fill it with water, then wash it while doing my dinner plate if I eat at home that night, or while waiting on the coffee machine the next morning. Mostly I wash dinner cooking utensils as I go, and my cutlery and crockery after I'm done (Friday or Saturday nights i…

I used to do this. Then I moved into a place with a brand new (efficient) dishwasher and did some rough experiments comparing the water usage. Now I just run the dishwasher every few days. It also has the added bonus of not needing to stack up stuff to dry.

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

#242

Post by duncan_bayne »

adrianN wrote: post #147
visarga wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visualise yourself sleeping with an arm hanging above you. What if someone hacks the arm and it kills you in your sleep? You can't be sure with all the vulnerabilities. I wouldn't be able to sleep with such a dangerous thing in the same room.

Step 1: Don't connect it to the Internet.

But then how would it sign advertising to the deaf people in your household?

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

#243

Post by avip »

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 know there's a mental gap to cross here, but seriously - just get another human being to do that for you.

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

#244

Post by _v7gu »

wbillingsley wrote: post #129
torpfactory wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s an easy way to cut down on laundry - wear your clothes multiple times between cleanings.... honestly I usually wear jeans 2-3 days between washes. Everything else is single day only... except when I go backpacking and then wear the same thing for a week straight. The smell is... complex.

Any minute now, I'm expecting someone to pipe up "Oh, I just shower clothed..."

I actually saw that advice on a running forum as a solution to handle laundry between morning and afternoon runs.

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

#245

Post by zimpenfish »

gajomi wrote: post #218
iandanforth wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the guy behind FoldiMate a little bit. I've met him at trade shows. One thing I have to point out is that he has pursued this dream for years. Lack of interest, team, funding ... nothing has stopped this guy. It's a really hard problem and he keeps at it. I can't say I'm rushing out to buy one myself, but there's a human story here too, and I think that's been lost in the coverage.

This makes me think... are there any special circumstances in which clothes need to be folded in such a special way and with sufficiently high throughput that this kind of machine could make headway? Oftentimes general purpose technologies can come to market only after predecessors in niche areas.

As a side comment mentioned: hotels would be an ideal case because they have a lot of standard things that need to be folded (sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc.) and sticking to those basic cases could probably bring the cost way down and reliability way up.

(But I suspect you don’t need a fancy machine for simple shapes - a simple folding wooden rig would do and be almost as quick. Hell, I’ve got a cheap plastic thing that’ll do shirts in seconds.)

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

#246

Post by animal531 »

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.

Yeah, the machines now are performing unnecessary intermediate steps, or rather I should say could perhaps perform extra steps that overall would make the design of the machines easier.

What we want long term is a machine that does all the work, e.g. that can spit out requested items and which when returned to the machine will clean and store them (the same idea works for any of clothing, cutlery, tools, shoes etc).

Why should I have to take the folded clothes or washed dishes and go pack them away? Won't it be easier if the machine just does that for me? If I want a glass I just browse the stored inventory and it spits out my requested item.

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

#247

Post by randomdata »

megaman22 wrote: post #143
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…

You know what I want? I never want to mow my lawn again. I try really hard to burn it when it gets hot and dry, but the percentages aren't working out. Failing that, I'd like to have a roomba that rakes my leaves.

https://www.deere.com/en_INT/products/equipment/robotic_mowe...

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

#248

Post by extrapickles »

indy wrote: post #233
iandanforth wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the guy behind FoldiMate a little bit. I've met him at trade shows. One thing I have to point out is that he has pursued this dream for years. Lack of interest, team, funding ... nothing has stopped this guy. It's a really hard problem and he keeps at it. I can't say I'm rushing out to buy one myself, but there's a human story here too, and I think that's been lost in the coverage.

Perhaps he could focus on folding towels and then sell the device to the hotel/AirBnB industry?

They already exist for large hotels for things like towels.

Fairly expensive machines though, and typically can only fold 1 type of article (eg: need a machine for each towel size or spend time setting it up)

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

#249

Post by ehnto »

jamesvandyne wrote: post #161
yorwba wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know? There needs to be some kind of connection for remote programmability. The default choice is likely something connected to the (W)LAN. From there, it's only one misconfigured firewall and a default password away from being hacked over the internet.

They're not. They've been around longer than WiFi. It's a simple wired connection to the control panel in the tub that's installed as a single unit. It let's you control things like temp, intercom to the kitchen and so forth. Automatic Bath one of my favorite things about living in Japan, even more so than the heated toilet seat.

I really wish we had decided on Intranet of Things. I don't know how anyone thought connecting to outside services to manage your house was a good idea. Your Own House as a Service, YOHAS. Rolls off the tongue.

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

#250

Post by threeseed »

iandanforth wrote: post #215
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I know the guy behind FoldiMate a little bit. I've met him at trade shows. One thing I have to point out is that he has pursued this dream for years. Lack of interest, team, funding ... nothing has stopped this guy. It's a really hard problem and he keeps at it. I can't say I'm rushing out to buy one myself, but there's a human story here too, and I think that's been lost in the coverage.

> but there's a human story here too, and I think that's been lost in the coverage

There's a human story behind every product.

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