Lifeboat Foundation

“No offense; but your robots are ugly”

Robots today (especially for home and care giver usage) will need to improve drastically. We’re still designing robots like the are a CPU for homes which frankly freaks some kids out, scares some of the elderly population that it’s too fragile to operate, and my own cat will not come near one. If robotics for home use is ever going to be adopted by the large mass of the population they will need to look less like they are a robot part of a manufacturers’s assembly line, will need a softer/ low noise sound with volume controls for those with hard of hearing, will need modifications for the deaf and blind, will all need to be a multi purpose robot that can do 2 or more types of work inside the home vacumn/ dust/ cook/ wash dishes/ wash clothes, etc., not complicated to set up and operate, reliable (not needing repairs all the time & not over heat), less bulky, better sensors to determine stairs and can climb stairs, etc.

From mowing the lawn to cooking dinner, experts say automatons are set to take over some of our most tedious tasks.

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Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.

Continue reading “The audacious plan to end hunger with 3D printed food” »

Unfortunately, much of this (teaching morals, developing a defense plan in case of a preemptive strike, etc,) is not going to work and key reason is simple. Robots are and will always be a machine at it’s core foundation. And, as a result, criminals and terrorists will be able to pay enough money to someone to over ride the technology; therefore, enabling criminals and others to do whatever they wish with the technology.

Instead of trying to promote book reading as a means to preventing an up rising; let’s be a little more realistic in this by stating we’re teaching the machine to have more of an interpersonal approach in its communications and interactions with people. Also, I highly encourage robotic companies need to include a well diverse engineering team especially where robotics is being developed for domestic usage and caregiver usage; otherwise, you will be only as good as the next competitor’s product that did include a right mix of engineers and deliver a better product that meets both male and female needs as well as cultural needs.

In other words, it will be hard for a robot designed & created with a dominate male (20 to 30 something year olds) minded to relate how a female 50 yr old thinks about her house. Again, I would love to see more females get into this space especially female owned companies because they could truly own this market.
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Continue reading “Researchers Propose a Simple Way to Prevent a Robot Uprising” »

Where robotic companies are really messing up

The domesticated robot market is a hot market; could be dominated by female owned and operated robotic companies. When we look at the companies building robots today for home use; it is very male dominated meaning a woman that is in her 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s is stuck with robotics for her home designed and developed by 20 & 30 year old males.

Now, how does a 20 or 30 something year old understands how a female in her 30’s, 40’s, … thinks and “feels” about her house? They don’t so this is a huge gap and a problem in this space.

Continue reading “Meet the man building Herb, the closest thing we have to Rosie the Robot” »

For now, wearable tech clothing seems to be effective for only outdoor/sports wear and occupational wear; I believe that more needs to be done in working with design houses such as Marc Jacobs, Versace, Dior, etc. What I have learned is the major design houses are not totally bought into wearable tech cloth; and tech will need to understand how to make the fabric technology more attractive to the name brand design houses especially if wearable tech clothing wishes to obtain a larger adoption of wearable tech clothing.

“If anyone could pull it off, it would be you” is not the most affirmative compliment.

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Nice gadget; however, still trying to understand it’s benefit. Some may say takes pics; well why I would have a drone. Maybe good for soccer.

Let’s talk about balls for a second. They’re super handy. They’ve done a lot for humans. And because of spherical objects, we have sports and automobiles. Heck—even the Earth is a giant ball.

But LG just took ball technology to the next level.

Continue reading “This LG Robot Ball Thing Is Insane” »

I could see dry cleaners in the future being one that you drive up, drop your clothing in a bin (like a drop off box), key in your name and phone number on a kiosk, you get a ticket, a self driving van/ truck collects from the drop off box, the robotics cleaner cleans and processes your clothes. You come to the dry cleaning center, you pay, and collect your clothes.

Also, if you opt to have your clothes delivered; at time of drop off you will be required to prepay and enter in your address at the drop off point. And, a drone delivers to your address.

Ironing sucks, but it’s the kind of precise activity that usually stumps robots. But no longer, because a wonderful team of engineers has developed a robot that can smooth the creases right out of your most wrinkled pair of pants.

Continue reading “We All Need A Robot Like This To Iron Our Clothes” »

Gaga has gone gaga over robotic arms for her keyboard.

“You have to institute and build a robotic system that would be ready to perform in six minutes in front of millions of people on national television.”

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AI’s Missing Link according to big tech.

We don’t know how to make software that learns without explicit instruction—but we need to if dreams of humanlike AI are to come true.

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