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CNN Saturday Morning News
Robot for $600
Aired October 05, 2002 - 08:33 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I'm a "Jetsons" fan. Are you? Remember the "Jetsons" cartoon? Of course you do. And remember the robot? Her name was Rosie. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come and get it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the dinner bell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dinner bell?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: All right, Rosie the robot. When I was a kid, I wanted to get me one of them. Of course, it really hasn't happened that way, has it? Just like a lot of technology. "Star Trek" and "The Jetsons" have far exceeded reality.
Nevertheless, Daniel Sieberg, a man who never sleeps and who spends his entire time here at CNN working -- who probably needs a robot to help him out...
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sure. They'll probably take over for us one day, you know?
O'BRIEN: ... in his Herculean task.
SIEBERG: Yes, well...
O'BRIEN: Careful. Careful now.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Let's not get into the Max Headroom issue. Is here to show us what a real robot would look like. I don't see an apron on this one.
SIEBERG: Right. It's lacking an apron and perhaps it's lacking some of the features that people think of when they think of a robot. Here's the best way to describe it. It's made by Evolution Robotics. What we've got here is a laptop. The laptop is necessary to power the robot. If you think of it as the brain, what you get when you buy it is this skeleton of it and the eye. Up on the top where we've got a Web cam that's used as part of the software that comes with it. It recognizes objects and it can do a number of things for you around the house.
Now, we can do a quick demonstration with it. It does require some patience and some time to set up some of the things that it can do. But we are going to go into one of the programs here and open it up.
O'BRIEN: All right, and while you're doing that, Daniel?
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Is it so much time and so much patience that it would be just easier to do the vacuuming yourself?
SIEBERG: You know, unfortunately it doesn't do the vacuuming, which most people would like. But it does require, you know, that you get involved with the program, that you set up some of the preferences and, you know, make sure that all those things are working.
O'BRIEN: So it's not a turnkey operation by any stretch, just?
SIEBERG: Right. Certainly not. And a...
O'BRIEN: And is this, are we looking at a prototype or is this...
SIEBERG: No, this is actually on the market now. If you buy it in the pre-assembled version, which most people would probably want to do because it would take you a while to set it all up, that's $600. If you buy it -- or, sorry. It's, that's $500. If you buy it non- assembled, then that would be cheaper. That would be $500 and $600 if it's assembled. So...
O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. But the laptop is extra, right?
SIEBERG: And the laptop is extra. Very good point. That is absolutely...
O'BRIEN: All right, that includes the software and the hardware? Six hundred bucks?
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: That's it? All right.
SIEBERG: If we can do the quick demonstration here.
O'BRIEN: OK, go ahead.
SIEBERG: Mike, if you want to bring the camera in. Basically we've pre-programmed it to look for a certain object. And if you see here...
O'BRIEN: By the way, we have a real human being on this handheld camera right here. SIEBERG: Right. That's right. That's not a robot.
O'BRIEN: Well, he's alleged to be. Yes, yes.
SIEBERG: Not a robocam. Now, it's going to look for this particular object here. And when I hold it up, it should start running through the sequence that we've programmed it to do. And...
O'BRIEN: You're telling it to do something in infinity.
SIEBERG: OK, now, this is live television, Miles.
O'BRIEN: That's infinity.
SIEBERG: And this is what I was worried would happen. We have actually got low battery power on here and it's smart enough to realize that the battery is so low on the laptop that it can't power itself to move around. So...
O'BRIEN: So can you say dude, go get another battery and does it go off and...
SIEBERG: If it had enough battery power to do that. But we do have a, we have a list...
O'BRIEN: Hence the catch-22. All right, this is the opportunity where we say let's go to the videotape, shall we?
SIEBERG: Yes, right. We've got some backup here.
O'BRIEN: Show us what it can do.
SIEBERG: We've got a list of things that it could potentially do once you've actually programmed all of these things in. As you can see here, it reminds you of the things that you have to do. It can follow a specific path around the office for Web security with this Web cam. It can even play a lullaby if your baby cries too loudly. It can give guests a tour of your house, believe it or not. It will e-mail a video to a party guest who couldn't make it. And it even passes out hors d'oeuvres if you've got some of the accessories that are set up with it.
I should mention that it only runs with Windows. It doesn't work with Macs. So Mac fans out there will be disappointed.
O'BRIEN: And it runs with a battery, which is just now failing.
SIEBERG: And it's just now dying.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: You see how this works?
O'BRIEN: Yes. OK, well, what other things could it do in the future, by chance?
SIEBERG: Yes, right...
O'BRIEN: Although we haven't seen any proof it does anything in the present...
SIEBERG: You know...
O'BRIEN: ... nevertheless, what does it do in the future?
SIEBERG: Right. There are some things that -- and people might also be asking how it navigates around different objects, how it moves around. And we do have some video we can show people of it in action so you can at least get a sense for what the ER1 does.
O'BRIEN: The moment we've been waiting for.
SIEBERG: Here it is.
O'BRIEN: Here it is.
SIEBERG: It's moving around the its laptop. This is the ER1 from Evolution Robotics moving around. It has one Web camera on it right now. That's what comes with it when you buy it. You do need to get the I.R. infrared sensor in order for it to manipulate around all these different objects. That's not available yet. When it is available -- and you can see it's doing these things right now -- it would help you get around objects and not collide with things, obviously.
It can also come with an arm, a gripper arm that would allow it to bring drinks to you or pizza or carry something to you. Of course, you would have to preprogram all of these things in. It's not quite at the point where it's thinking for itself. We're not talking about artificial intelligence here, we're talking about programming the laptop with the software that comes in it, with it, this proprietary software, and then it running through these number of tasks. And we're seeing it here in a speeded up motion.
It recognized the right type of beer and is bringing it to this guy. But, you know, it does take some patience, as I say. We sat with it last night for a while, programming in some of these things to run it through. And then, of course, we were, our legs were cut out from us with the dead battery so it didn't matter.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. Of course the guy there in the chair could have just gotten up and walked three steps to get the beer, you see?
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: But nevertheless, the cool factor is what we're talking about here.
SIEBERG: That's exactly what we're talking about.
O'BRIEN: All right, then...
SIEBERG: Now we should mention also the peripherals if we can. O'BRIEN: Oh, why don't we?
SIEBERG: Just quickly, yes. We, there are a few things that...
O'BRIEN: Like batteries.
SIEBERG: Like batteries. There are, you can get extra batteries. We're seeing here some of the images of what it looks like if you want to get some of the extra peripherals that come with it. There's the gripper arm. There's also a little trailer that you can build and attach on the back of it. And, you know, as we mentioned, it is available now. It comes for $600 and the $500, you get $100 off if you get the pre, the non-assembled version if you've got a lot of time to try and set it up.
O'BRIEN: All right, they got a 24 hour help desk with this thing?
SIEBERG: You know, they do have a support desk. They've got a Web site, evolution.com.
O'BRIEN: With humans, human beings?
SIEBERG: With humans, presumably, yes.
O'BRIEN: OK.
SIEBERG: With humans. And with enough battery power to keep people, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg, a man who never needs his batteries recharged, thank you, as always, for being here.
SIEBERG: All right.
O'BRIEN: And some day you should get a day off. But we appreciate your dropping by, as always.
SIEBERG: Yes, OK. All right, thanks.
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 October 5, 2002 - 08:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I'm a "Jetsons" fan. Are you? Remember the "Jetsons" cartoon? Of course you do. And remember the robot? Her name was Rosie. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come and get it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the dinner bell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dinner bell?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: All right, Rosie the robot. When I was a kid, I wanted to get me one of them. Of course, it really hasn't happened that way, has it? Just like a lot of technology. "Star Trek" and "The Jetsons" have far exceeded reality.
Nevertheless, Daniel Sieberg, a man who never sleeps and who spends his entire time here at CNN working -- who probably needs a robot to help him out...
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sure. They'll probably take over for us one day, you know?
O'BRIEN: ... in his Herculean task.
SIEBERG: Yes, well...
O'BRIEN: Careful. Careful now.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Let's not get into the Max Headroom issue. Is here to show us what a real robot would look like. I don't see an apron on this one.
SIEBERG: Right. It's lacking an apron and perhaps it's lacking some of the features that people think of when they think of a robot. Here's the best way to describe it. It's made by Evolution Robotics. What we've got here is a laptop. The laptop is necessary to power the robot. If you think of it as the brain, what you get when you buy it is this skeleton of it and the eye. Up on the top where we've got a Web cam that's used as part of the software that comes with it. It recognizes objects and it can do a number of things for you around the house.
Now, we can do a quick demonstration with it. It does require some patience and some time to set up some of the things that it can do. But we are going to go into one of the programs here and open it up.
O'BRIEN: All right, and while you're doing that, Daniel?
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Is it so much time and so much patience that it would be just easier to do the vacuuming yourself?
SIEBERG: You know, unfortunately it doesn't do the vacuuming, which most people would like. But it does require, you know, that you get involved with the program, that you set up some of the preferences and, you know, make sure that all those things are working.
O'BRIEN: So it's not a turnkey operation by any stretch, just?
SIEBERG: Right. Certainly not. And a...
O'BRIEN: And is this, are we looking at a prototype or is this...
SIEBERG: No, this is actually on the market now. If you buy it in the pre-assembled version, which most people would probably want to do because it would take you a while to set it all up, that's $600. If you buy it -- or, sorry. It's, that's $500. If you buy it non- assembled, then that would be cheaper. That would be $500 and $600 if it's assembled. So...
O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. But the laptop is extra, right?
SIEBERG: And the laptop is extra. Very good point. That is absolutely...
O'BRIEN: All right, that includes the software and the hardware? Six hundred bucks?
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: That's it? All right.
SIEBERG: If we can do the quick demonstration here.
O'BRIEN: OK, go ahead.
SIEBERG: Mike, if you want to bring the camera in. Basically we've pre-programmed it to look for a certain object. And if you see here...
O'BRIEN: By the way, we have a real human being on this handheld camera right here. SIEBERG: Right. That's right. That's not a robot.
O'BRIEN: Well, he's alleged to be. Yes, yes.
SIEBERG: Not a robocam. Now, it's going to look for this particular object here. And when I hold it up, it should start running through the sequence that we've programmed it to do. And...
O'BRIEN: You're telling it to do something in infinity.
SIEBERG: OK, now, this is live television, Miles.
O'BRIEN: That's infinity.
SIEBERG: And this is what I was worried would happen. We have actually got low battery power on here and it's smart enough to realize that the battery is so low on the laptop that it can't power itself to move around. So...
O'BRIEN: So can you say dude, go get another battery and does it go off and...
SIEBERG: If it had enough battery power to do that. But we do have a, we have a list...
O'BRIEN: Hence the catch-22. All right, this is the opportunity where we say let's go to the videotape, shall we?
SIEBERG: Yes, right. We've got some backup here.
O'BRIEN: Show us what it can do.
SIEBERG: We've got a list of things that it could potentially do once you've actually programmed all of these things in. As you can see here, it reminds you of the things that you have to do. It can follow a specific path around the office for Web security with this Web cam. It can even play a lullaby if your baby cries too loudly. It can give guests a tour of your house, believe it or not. It will e-mail a video to a party guest who couldn't make it. And it even passes out hors d'oeuvres if you've got some of the accessories that are set up with it.
I should mention that it only runs with Windows. It doesn't work with Macs. So Mac fans out there will be disappointed.
O'BRIEN: And it runs with a battery, which is just now failing.
SIEBERG: And it's just now dying.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: You see how this works?
O'BRIEN: Yes. OK, well, what other things could it do in the future, by chance?
SIEBERG: Yes, right...
O'BRIEN: Although we haven't seen any proof it does anything in the present...
SIEBERG: You know...
O'BRIEN: ... nevertheless, what does it do in the future?
SIEBERG: Right. There are some things that -- and people might also be asking how it navigates around different objects, how it moves around. And we do have some video we can show people of it in action so you can at least get a sense for what the ER1 does.
O'BRIEN: The moment we've been waiting for.
SIEBERG: Here it is.
O'BRIEN: Here it is.
SIEBERG: It's moving around the its laptop. This is the ER1 from Evolution Robotics moving around. It has one Web camera on it right now. That's what comes with it when you buy it. You do need to get the I.R. infrared sensor in order for it to manipulate around all these different objects. That's not available yet. When it is available -- and you can see it's doing these things right now -- it would help you get around objects and not collide with things, obviously.
It can also come with an arm, a gripper arm that would allow it to bring drinks to you or pizza or carry something to you. Of course, you would have to preprogram all of these things in. It's not quite at the point where it's thinking for itself. We're not talking about artificial intelligence here, we're talking about programming the laptop with the software that comes in it, with it, this proprietary software, and then it running through these number of tasks. And we're seeing it here in a speeded up motion.
It recognized the right type of beer and is bringing it to this guy. But, you know, it does take some patience, as I say. We sat with it last night for a while, programming in some of these things to run it through. And then, of course, we were, our legs were cut out from us with the dead battery so it didn't matter.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. Of course the guy there in the chair could have just gotten up and walked three steps to get the beer, you see?
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: But nevertheless, the cool factor is what we're talking about here.
SIEBERG: That's exactly what we're talking about.
O'BRIEN: All right, then...
SIEBERG: Now we should mention also the peripherals if we can. O'BRIEN: Oh, why don't we?
SIEBERG: Just quickly, yes. We, there are a few things that...
O'BRIEN: Like batteries.
SIEBERG: Like batteries. There are, you can get extra batteries. We're seeing here some of the images of what it looks like if you want to get some of the extra peripherals that come with it. There's the gripper arm. There's also a little trailer that you can build and attach on the back of it. And, you know, as we mentioned, it is available now. It comes for $600 and the $500, you get $100 off if you get the pre, the non-assembled version if you've got a lot of time to try and set it up.
O'BRIEN: All right, they got a 24 hour help desk with this thing?
SIEBERG: You know, they do have a support desk. They've got a Web site, evolution.com.
O'BRIEN: With humans, human beings?
SIEBERG: With humans, presumably, yes.
O'BRIEN: OK.
SIEBERG: With humans. And with enough battery power to keep people, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg, a man who never needs his batteries recharged, thank you, as always, for being here.
SIEBERG: All right.
O'BRIEN: And some day you should get a day off. But we appreciate your dropping by, as always.
SIEBERG: Yes, OK. All right, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
