I for one...

August 18, 2005 2:26 PM

Perhaps you'll remember one of the most popular bits of actual home robotics from the distant past, the venerated Heathkit Hero -- as seen on the teevee show Whiz Kids and other geek-facing programming. As I kid I thought they looked RAD and would nearly killed for one. Those days of everyman robo-lovin' I thought were well past, their niche filled with Aibo and other toy-based robots. Until today, however. The White Bot Robotics 914 rekindles dreams of a telerobotic presence lovingly slaved to robust hardware. Sadly, reports put the pricetag enticingly out of reach at $10K and the thing by default runs on XP, but in theory it's expandible. Also, the same report cites an $1,200 "less featured" model that "may" be forthcoming. Via
posted by Ogre Lawless (5 comments total)

1. Nice post.
2. The 914 is a PC on wheels, people. I imagine it will have trouble navigating the edges of dense carpets, to say nothing about doorsteps or (gasp) stairs.
posted by spazzm at 6:23 PM on August 18, 2005

It'll navigate the stairs fine. Once. And only if it's going down.
posted by substrate at 6:50 PM on August 18, 2005

Every Christmas my sisters and I would get one present specifically marked "From Dad." It was always some type of robot--a robot intended to bring him beer. Unfortunately, none were sophisticated enough to actually open the refrigerator and the novelty of handing the beer to the robot instead of dad wore off pretty quickly.
Poor robots. Poor Dad.
posted by jrossi4r at 8:42 PM on August 18, 2005

Can it give an oriental massage? I'd buy one for that..
posted by Balisong at 10:16 PM on August 18, 2005

Your dad was right on, jrossi4r. As tempted as I am by all the robo-toys at Best Buy, I have sworn to myself that I will not purchase a robot until the day when I can say to it, "Robot, get me a beer," and the machine will go to the refrigerator, open it, find a bottle of beer regardless of where it happens to be inside the fridge, close the fridge door, and bring the beer back to me. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting closer. Any year now, I tell you...
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:40 AM on August 19, 2005