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Great technology for mobility impaired individuals who need someone to get the paper or pick up a pencil off the floor... Who knows where this innovation might lead to? The price is right too.
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Ruth Burchell
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Palm Pilots Now Becoming Robots
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-palm-robot-dc.html
January 4, 2001
By REUTERS
Filed at 12:05 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Palm Pilot application No. 413: sending it for
coffee.
Ambitious owners of the personal organizer can now move beyond such
passe uses such as making phone calls, ordering movie tickets, or
snapping photos. Their Palm can now be turned into a robot.
With a $300 kit available over the Web, everyday people can turn
their Palm Pilots into the brains of a small, six-sided robot with
three red wheels, equipped with infrared sensors and rechargeable
batteries.
The device, developed at Carnegie Mellon University and licensed to
a Boulder, Colo.-based robotics company called Acroname, has few,
if any, practical uses today. But it could help inspire a new
passion for robotics among the general public, its seller said.
``I think this is primarily a teaching and instructional tool,''
said Steve Richards, the founder of Acroname. ``It's a way to get
involved in robotics with a very accessible tool.''
He has already sold a few hundred of the robots, and expects to
sell more than 1,000 this year.
Research universities and government laboratories have long been
experimenting with robots for defense applications, such as
disarming mines, attacking enemies on the battlefield, and taking
pictures of enemy terrain.
But by allowing millions of individuals with personal organizers to
experiment with a robot in their own homes, robots could find more
uses in people's daily lives. Putting together the $299 robot,
officially named the Palm Pilot Robot Kit, requires only a
screwdriver. Once it's built, the Palm is slipped in and the robot
is ready to go.
A ``barebones'' kit is available for $40 less, but requires such
actions as gluing connectors and wiring a cable.
The robot is compatible with most versions of the Palm, made by
Palm Inc.(PALM.O) except the Palm V. A kit for the Handspring Visor
from Handspring Inc.(HAND.O) is in the works.
Once created, users can download special software for the Palm that
controls the robot's movement. With one program, the robot moves in
the same direction as the user writes on the Palm's screen.
Acroname also sells other robot products including a $99 Lego
``discovery'' kit and a $580 ``rug warrior'' robot.
The New York Times on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com
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