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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

#431

Post by therealdrag0 »

pitaj wrote: post #209
erik_landerholm wrote: post #106

Don’t care! It’s the golden age of tvs! Oleds are a technology that’s actually living up to the hype. I have an lg wallpaper tv and you can roll it up! The new ones look even more flexible. One even rolls up into a box. Robots will catch up. The future of TVs is now!

I want my OLED monitors. I've been waiting for years for an OLED monitor, it's my dream. The closest thing is VA+Quantum Dot monitors, but they just aren't the same.

I would love an affordable eInk monitor. A lot of nights I want to do textual work on my computer (coding or writing), but my eyes are so done with the brightness.

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

#432

Post by skellera »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #429
vec wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already have a machine that lets me dump a bucket of laundry in the top and have it come out clean/dry/folded. It's called Washbox, and it's a locker in the atrium of my apartment building. I drop my clothes off, text the locker number to the company, and my clothes will be returned clean the next day. It is, in fact, both super useful and cheap. I'm sure they would love to automate their washing & folding process…

Just looked at their pricing, that's a bit high... They'd be charging me almost as much just to do wash & fold than I pay for someone to clean my whole house....

So the $70 a month plan seems interesting. I spend maybe an hour on and off doing laundry a week. Add in time to start and stop whatever I’m doing so let’s say 1.5. So that’s 6 hours a month. That’s a touch less than $12 an hour. My time according to work is more valuable than that.

I can see it being worth it for people who make a decent income and spend that time doing something else. It’s pretty much the same as any service for things that need to be done regularly. As your time becomes more valuable, it makes sense to delegate those tasks off.

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

#433

Post by user5994461 »

pisarzp wrote: post #327
BigJono wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 first generation Xiaomi vacuum and it's amazing, at 30% of high end Roomba with comparable features

Xiaomi, the phone manufacturer?

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

#435

Post by retox »

user5994461 wrote: post #433
pisarzp wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a first generation Xiaomi vacuum and it's amazing, at 30% of high end Roomba with comparable features

Xiaomi, the phone manufacturer?

Have a look on AliExpress or gearbest etc they make a huge range of things. I've always been happy with their stuff too, though they are getting more expensive.

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

#436

Post by Shikadi »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #166
raitom wrote: post #82

We are talking about machines but during my last trip to Japan I’ve been blown away by the domotic present in the appartment I rented. There was a self-filling bathtube that I could program directly from the kitchen. Is there any « bathtube auto-fill/alexa » product in the US? I never been able to find something like that. I’d like to be able to ask alexa to prepare my bath while I’m cooking.

I've seen bathtub auto fillers before, but not ones that you could control from the kitchen. They're a pretty simple concept, either have a flowmeter on the faucet, or have a water level meter to detect how high the water level is, and turn the faucet off after a certain volume.

I read that as "either have a flamethrower on the faucet..." and was trying to figure out why heating the water locally made sense and why the alternative was a level meter.

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

#437

Post by taeric »

beaconstudios wrote: post #18
taeric wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand and agree with these desires. However, getting fewer and simpler clothes can near solve the second problem for much cheaper. Similarly, eating out comes close to solving the first problem. Will be very cost competitive with robots for the same in the foreseeable future. To the point that solving this problem will require more behavior change from us than we're likely to realize.

Eating out every night takes a lot of time and is not cost-effective for a huge percentage of the population.

The point I didn't really make was that robots for personal dishes is not likely to be cheap anytime soon. That is, my emphasis was supposed to be the alternatives being advantaged for the foreseeable future. Not that someone has to change their behavior.

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

#438

Post by taeric »

astura wrote: post #114
taeric wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand and agree with these desires. However, getting fewer and simpler clothes can near solve the second problem for much cheaper. Similarly, eating out comes close to solving the first problem. Will be very cost competitive with robots for the same in the foreseeable future. To the point that solving this problem will require more behavior change from us than we're likely to realize.

You know some people have to wear uniforms, right? You know some people have occupations where you get really dirty, right? You know some people have to "dress to impress" for work, right? Not everyone can move to "simple" clothes so easily, including most people who are employed.

None of this really contradicts my points. Reduce the time spent cleaning by reducing the amount of time you spend cleaning. This could mean cleaning more often, but you will still spend less time doing it.

And... none of the people you mentioned are likely to benefit from the first several waves of robots cleaning outfits. Which was what I had on my mind.

That is, if you are a person that feels they need help cleaning their clothes, you are likely not a person that will benefit from the first robotic solutions. Unless, of course, you could already benefit from the current outsourcing techniques for the job. And it will be a while before those are beaten in price.

I say this as someone that has grown to love our robotic vacuum. Things is awesome. Probably still cheaper and more effective to just sweep and vacuum manually.

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

#439

Post by pdfernhout »

hughes wrote: post #29
mikeash wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to comment that it doesn’t matter how slow it is as long as it finishes overnight or whatever. Good thing I decided to actually watch the video first. What’s the point if a person has to be so involved!?

Now we just need another robot that can take the clothes out of the dryer and lay them out flat for the folding machine.

The closest I've seen to a full solution: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/pr2...

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

#440

Post by pdfernhout »

brownbat wrote: post #27
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…

If the sky's the limit, I'd like kiva for my home. Maybe a dumb waiter would open in the wall with a little standard sized basket. I'd name what I'm storing, like tennis racket or snow shoes, and it would whisk it away to a storage space under the house or in the walls somewhere. I ask for it by name, the house brings it back to the portal. An uncluttered house where I can have anything I use once a year within secon…

Yeah, I've wanted to make something similar It would be cool if the front-end might looked like a Star Trek TNG replicator.

I wrote about a related idea here, expanding on the idea to include an actual internet of things in boxes: http://pdfernhout.net/post-scarcity-princeton.html#Princeton...

I'd also like something for storing and retrieving lots of different types of LEGO.

Related prior work: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kay/pln/

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