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CNN Live At Daybreak
Comdex Auto Show
Aired November 19, 2003 - 05:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You know, by now we were all supposed to be driving hover mobiles and all of our work was supposed to be done by robots and clones. You know, you remember "The Jetsons?" Well, we aren't quite there yet.
But as Daniel Sieberg reports, the robot thing is getting pretty close.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, welcome to the robotics petting zoo here at the Comdex Tech Show. And I think we're playing sort of virtual zookeeper, in a sense, today. And we're talking about some of the new robots that are either on the market already or some prototypes of ones that are going to be out soon.
And I'm joined right now by Lance Ulanoff.
He's executive editor at "PC Magazine.
And, Lance, what exactly powers all of these robots, first of all? I mean they're, they seem to be very compact.
LANCE ULANOFF, EDITOR, "PC MAGAZINE": Yes, well, at the heart of every single one of them is this Via Mini ITX motherboard. And the great thing about this is that it integrates the CPU, the graphics and the sound chips all into one board. It's low cost. It's low power, which is great for robots. And hobbyists were using it to build computers and they migrated into building robots.
SIEBERG: OK, now, some people might be familiar with, say, the Roomba, which helps you vacuum, or ones that help you mow your lawn.
What is the purpose of a lot of these robots and why would someone want to have one?
ULANOFF: I would say that you've got a combination of security and telepresence. You can have this, like, for example, this one, you can remote control it around your house and have it check from room to room, make sure there's no intruders, make sure the dog's not getting into the garbage again.
And for telepresence you could say, for example, this, the robodynamics -- this is just a prototype, but the idea is that maybe we'll have this going through the rooms of a hospital checking on patients so a doctor doesn't have to go up and down from room to room and they can feel like someone's checking on them. SIEBERG: Right. Now, if that robot was checking in on a patient, it doesn't look like a human at all. Is that intentional or?
ULANOFF: Right. Yes, that's intentional -- well, there's two things here. One is it's incredibly difficult to make a robot look like a human and actually act like a human. But the other part is that you don't want people to fall into a false sense of security and say this robot looks just like Aunt May and it can take care of the children. It's going to be a long time before robots can be left alone with the kids.
SIEBERG: All right. Well, I think that one's about to attack you, so we're going to have to control some of these, maybe feed them, keep them happy.
That's going to do it for now here at the Comdex Tech Show.
I'm Daniel Sieberg for CNN in Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 19, 2003 - 05:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You know, by now we were all supposed to be driving hover mobiles and all of our work was supposed to be done by robots and clones. You know, you remember "The Jetsons?" Well, we aren't quite there yet.
But as Daniel Sieberg reports, the robot thing is getting pretty close.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, welcome to the robotics petting zoo here at the Comdex Tech Show. And I think we're playing sort of virtual zookeeper, in a sense, today. And we're talking about some of the new robots that are either on the market already or some prototypes of ones that are going to be out soon.
And I'm joined right now by Lance Ulanoff.
He's executive editor at "PC Magazine.
And, Lance, what exactly powers all of these robots, first of all? I mean they're, they seem to be very compact.
LANCE ULANOFF, EDITOR, "PC MAGAZINE": Yes, well, at the heart of every single one of them is this Via Mini ITX motherboard. And the great thing about this is that it integrates the CPU, the graphics and the sound chips all into one board. It's low cost. It's low power, which is great for robots. And hobbyists were using it to build computers and they migrated into building robots.
SIEBERG: OK, now, some people might be familiar with, say, the Roomba, which helps you vacuum, or ones that help you mow your lawn.
What is the purpose of a lot of these robots and why would someone want to have one?
ULANOFF: I would say that you've got a combination of security and telepresence. You can have this, like, for example, this one, you can remote control it around your house and have it check from room to room, make sure there's no intruders, make sure the dog's not getting into the garbage again.
And for telepresence you could say, for example, this, the robodynamics -- this is just a prototype, but the idea is that maybe we'll have this going through the rooms of a hospital checking on patients so a doctor doesn't have to go up and down from room to room and they can feel like someone's checking on them. SIEBERG: Right. Now, if that robot was checking in on a patient, it doesn't look like a human at all. Is that intentional or?
ULANOFF: Right. Yes, that's intentional -- well, there's two things here. One is it's incredibly difficult to make a robot look like a human and actually act like a human. But the other part is that you don't want people to fall into a false sense of security and say this robot looks just like Aunt May and it can take care of the children. It's going to be a long time before robots can be left alone with the kids.
SIEBERG: All right. Well, I think that one's about to attack you, so we're going to have to control some of these, maybe feed them, keep them happy.
That's going to do it for now here at the Comdex Tech Show.
I'm Daniel Sieberg for CNN in Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
