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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

#401

I used to work in the event services industry and CES no longer needs to exist. All of the major companies can hold their own press events and promote their products. Why buy an exhibitor booth at CES when you could take the same money and DIY. Apple , Google and Microsoft get this. Also, things like Kickstarter do the same. In a few years CES , E3 won't really exist anymore they are already dead.

It's pretty handy for connecting with other companies, especially as a startup. I was there this year, helping out with someone else's booth, and I'd say the primary value was the number of manufacturing / marketing / partnership contacts that were able to be made by having a booth.

I'm not sure how many people we talked to will end up being buyers, but I'm pretty sure that we met people who will help the company succeed.

As a side note, I found the startup area so much more interesting than the main halls. Who cares about seeing a TV that's slightly larger than your last one, when you can learn about a treadmill that's thin and light enough to tuck between the couch and the wall, or a pet food feeder that detects which pet to feed based on their vet microchips?

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

#402
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…

And: 3) Clean my house automatically every day or so.

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

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dragons Den exists in the US (and Canada) too, I believe. There’s also Shark Tank. I quite enjoy watching Dragons Den (and Shark Tank on youtube). I agree with your second paragraph completely. I also totally undrestand it, having cofounded startups myself in the past. You get tunnel vision.

"Shark Tank" is what "Dragons' Den" is known as outside of the UK. It's the same show.

Ahhhh! Thanks for the correction.

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

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Since I have to drag a vacuum out to do those I might as well do the rest My parents have gotten themselves a back-pack style vacuum cleaner. It's not the prettiest thing, but it makes it very easy to vacuum stairs, and very very easy to play Ghostbuster.

Could just use one of those hand vacuum cleaners that people use to clean cars. They're good enough to clean my stairs twice a week, at least.

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

#405
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…

[deleted]

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

#406
post #15
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: Here is a video of it working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uay9hzwusk This looks like it would take quite a lot longer than just folding the clothes yourself.

If they can combine that with a washer/dryer, I'd buy it. Dirty laundry in, folded laundry out. Doesn't matter how long it takes, can work overnight. But the video doesn't look like that would work anytime soon.

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

#407
This article and many comments here completely misses the bigger picture.

Robots is only one way for AI to be expressed. To expect us to be much further ahead with robots shows how wrong most discussions about robots are.

In most industrial settings, robots is the standard and works just fine, in an increasing number of warehouses and other semi controlled environments it's gaining popularity.

Consumner robots ai needs to be much more generalized for them to feel "smart" as they are in much less predictable environments.

To expect consumer robots to be much further than they are makes no sense. Thats not where the primary progress is made just yet and no one maybe besides media and a few opportunistic companies are under that illusion.

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

#408
post #35
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first recommendation is pure genius!

I saw it done with a stacked pair of dishwasher drawers (e.g.: https://www.remodelista.com/posts/appliances-dishwasher-draw... ) in a small apartment in Switzerland recently, with "clean" and "dirty" magnets that got swapped around -- there was no other dish storage. Pretty great. My other favorite is the Italian dish drainer (a few examples here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/759138080911631519 ) -- basically the ca…

In Italian it is called "scolapiatti", it may well have been patented in the US and be a Finnish invention (in the form suspended over the kitchen sink), but in Italy it has been a traditional tool since dishes were invented, it used to be an outside piece of furniture, more like a basket:

https://maisonderose.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/cera-una-volta...

http://www.lasoffittaretro.it/classico/48-scolapiatti-in-fer...

until houses had water (and thus sinks), I believe that as soon as sinks were installed in kitchens, the one or the other form of "scolapiatti" became in use, this is an early, primitive, type:

http://www.comune.sangiorgiodellarichinvelda.pn.it/fileadmin...

And this is another example:

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/192394042552_/AAX-P...

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

#409
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to put my dirty clothes in the hamper in the morning; and when I get home at night, they folded and pressed and placed in their proper place. In that way I could have so few garments which would reduce consumerism.

This would almost inevitably be extremely wasteful; it's very inefficient to run any conceivable washing machine with almost nothing in it.

I think in that case the device that does this would include washing optimized for small loads. It wouldn't just dump a few pieces in your washer/dryer.

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

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most founders are, the successful ones at least.

The successful ones are insane and lucky.

With a heavy bias towards lucky (but they will usually attribute it to everything else but luck).
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