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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

#271

Post by stordoff »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #265
bigiain wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

You can hire people to do that for you, you know - very flexible, can do all the things, do them while you're out of the house.

For me there, the issue is trust (and that's not intended as a slight against the people who do that kind of work -- I have family members who used to do precisely that). I just would not feel comfortable having people doing work in my home whilst I wasn't there.

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

#272

Post by Cthulhu_ »

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.

Replace it with a rock garden or artificial grass. Or pay the neighbour's kid (or your own) $5 to have it done every week or so.

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

#273

Post by jstanley »

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) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically.

I had a thought about this some time ago. What if every cupboard was a dishwasher? You just put dirty dishes away in the "cupboard", and then they get washed once the machine detects that there are too many dirty ones, and it can blow air through the cupboard to dry them off once it's done, and then you just open a cupboard and take out some clean dishes, whenever you want some.

It would even be fine if you had to manually tell the cupboard when to wash its contents.

You'd probably have to have about twice as many glasses, plates, bowls, etc. as you really need, so that you don't end up having all of the plates stuck inside one cupboard while wet. You always want to have everything you need available, clean, and dry. I don't think needing extra dishes would be a dominating cost, though.

You'd just have to run plumbing and electricity to all of your cupboard locations, buy enough tiny dishwashers, and then mount them on the wall. Probably could be done for only a few thousand pounds.

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

#274

Post by jstanley »

Tepix wrote: post #254
DeepYogurt wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also just get two washing machines. Load all the dirties into one then run it and as you use them load them into the other. Bam. Clean dishes and no putting them away.

You mean dish washers?

Don't you wash your dishes in a washing machine?

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

#275

Post by dagw »

BigJono wrote: post #196
bigiain wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...)

Are the Chinese knock-offs any good? I just looked up the price of a Roomba. $600 AUD to start for the shittiest model :(

I have a "Eufy robovac" I bought off Amazon and it works pretty great if you can accept a bunch of limitations.

It has no app and setting up any sort of non-trivial schedule using the simple remote that comes with it is very hard.

It never manages to find its way back to the charging station, so you have to find it and carry it back yourself each time.

It has no 'memory' so it has to learn the space it's in each time you start it and it doesn't know what it has and hasn't cleaned.

Beyond that it just works. I don't bother with scheduling. I just turn it on when I'm on my way out the door every other day or so and just let it get to work.

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

#276

Post by dkersten »

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.

He can be the nicest and most driven guy in the world, that doesn’t change whether or not his product is any good.

You wouldn’t buy, say, a car that only got half the mileage or whatever just because there’s a human story behind it. There’s a human story behind almost everything.

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

#277

Post by stordoff »

torpfactory wrote: post #90
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…

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.

Unless you're particularly active, or there are other contaminants (spills, mud etc.), a pair of jeans should be fine for a fair bit longer than that.

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

#278

Post by a_imho »

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…

I would be OK with a narrative shift that hypes kiss devices, maybe respecting the right to repair too.

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

#279

Post by slazaro »

jstanley wrote: post #273
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) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. I had a thought about this some time ago. What if every cupboard was a dishwasher? You just put dirty dishes away in the "cupboard", and then they get washed once the machine detects that there are too many dirty ones, and it can blow air through the cupboard to dry them off once it's done, and then you just open a cupboard and take out some cl…

I thought of something similar a long time ago: A regular-sized dishwasher that is divided into two working independent halves, also auto-drying after washing.

You'd place your dirty plates into the left, turn it on when full, place the next plates into the right, then the clean plates would be on the left while you'd fill the right one with the dirty ones, and keep alternating. This way you don't have to put anything away, you'd take the plates as needed from the dishwasher.

The nice thing about this is that it'd work with current dishwasher sizes, and no messy weird electrified cupboards. It could be manufactured today because it doesn't require special engineering, it doesn't require weird kitchens, and it's not a solution looking for a problem like some gadgets in the article.

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

#280

Post by robbiep »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #264
crdoconnor wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laundrettes?

Maybe if you had a guy whose job was to feed clothes into it in just the right way. TBF an experienced laundry person can fold them manually, much faster. Don't let a robot do something a human can do better.

Does anyone want a folded ironed shirt with the buttons done up?
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