What's Next For iRobot? 88
An anonymous reader writes "Ten years since the debut of the Roomba vacuum cleaner and military PackBot, robots are mainstream but still not in every home. Meanwhile, a new generation of robotics companies is taking off. Where does that leave iRobot, the godfather of the field? With its military business taking a hit from the U.S. defense budget, the 22-year-old public company is looking to reinvent itself with new kinds of robots, including a telepresence machine for doctors and hospitals and, further down the road, inflatable robots that could be cheaper, safer, and more portable than their metallic predecessors. The question is whether these new machines will be successful enough to keep the company growing — and add to its legacy in robotics."
Re:Remind me (Score:5, Funny)
$14.52. What does that have to do with anything?
He was testing your Internet research skills. You win this round.
They are headed in the right direction... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sounds like they're going to invent.. (Score:4, Funny)
Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm FLAILING TUBE MAN!!
Um, AC, I donno how to say it, but that tube... um... its not an arm... I think the robot likes you.
Re:Pest control (Score:4, Funny)
They need to design hunter-killer pest control robots next. Why bother fogging your apartment with deadly pesticides when you can let a few (roach/bedbug/beetle/spider)-hunting bots loose for targeted annihilation?
Already have one, works great! [wikipedia.org]
Re:Pest control (Score:4, Funny)
I have two. Unfortunately, one of mine likes to catch big palmetto bugs (a gigantic semi-flying roach found in Florida) in her mouth, then runs through her special door into the house, races up the stairs, jumps up onto her daddy's bed, and spits them out to proudly demonstrate her hunting skills and offer her daddy a late night snack, which he inevitably declines...
Re:Remind me (Score:2, Funny)
a relic of an old computerised heating project that never saw completion
So you had a bunch of Pentium 4 systems laying around? My P4 laptop kept me warm through cold winter nights.
Re:Who Cares (Score:4, Funny)
Look at Kodak. It's nearly dead, but no one seems to care.
We film photographers do. Both of us.
Re:They are headed in the right direction... (Score:4, Funny)
In the headlines for October 3rd 2017
IROBOT ACQUIRES REALDOLL
"We all knew they were coming...wait! wait! You know what I mean!" - anon
"The day an unemployed iron worker can lay in his Barcalounger with a Fosters in one hand and a channel flicker in the other and f--k Claudia Schiffer for $19.95, it's gonna make crack look like Sanka."- Dennis Miller on Virtual Reality - 6/16/95
Having failed to exterminate humanity twice...it tried a different approach. Well played skynet....well played.