Household Robot Jibo Nets Over $1 Million On Indiegogo 61
mikejuk (1801200) writes After seven days the Jibo project has over $1.1 million. What is surprising is that Jibo isn't a complex piece of hardware that will do the dishes and pick up clothes. It doesn't move around at all. It just sits and interacts with the family using a camera, microphones and a voice. It is a social robot, the speciality of the founder, MIT's, Cynthia Breazeal. The idea is that this robot will be your friend, take photos, remind you of appointments, order takeaway and tell the kids a story. If you watch the promo video then you can't help but think that this is all too polished and the real thing will fall flat on its face when delivered. If it does work then worry about the hundreds of kids needing psychiatric counselling — shades of Robbie in I, Robot. Even if it is hopelessly hyped — there is a development system and I want one. It is the early days of the home computer all over again.
iHAL9000 (Score:4, Insightful)
The first mental impression of this gizmo is that it looks like a HAL9000 video pickup as envisioned by Steve Jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was a Nabaztag. Not much different, except no ears.
Re:crap hardware (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, it's the early days of home computers and this is nothing more than a "Speak and Spell".
The TI Speak & Spell was incredibly sophisticated for its time, imagine a device in 1978 that had a character screen, plug-in vocabulary software modules, game apps, and of all things...could SPEAK OUT LOUD with sounds that where created by A speech synthesis processor instead of just samples. We didn't even have Commodore vic 20 or Commodore 64 by then, the Speak and Spell was an amazing piece of hardware. The speech synthesis chip TMS 5220 still blows me away with what it can do. You'll also find that chip (and it's siblings) inside various Arcade machines AND pinball machines, even more recent pinball machines.
And just to top that off, that little portable "computer", lasts for YEARS on a single set of batteries using it several hours each month, and it's soft-switch technology! Not even cellphones handle that kind of standby times even with the network disconnected. Don't diss the TI S&S!
Re: (Score:2)
hmm yeah but I'm thinking why would this be a device and not a piece of software? I mean, it would be just as well if it worked out of a laptop and laptop has probably much more cpu power than the device will have.. it's just a fucking talking face and the meat of the bone would be how good of illusion of reality it can give of being something else than eliza.
---is that why it's on indie-give-us-monay-we-don't-know-if-this-works-gogo?
Re: (Score:2)
hmm yeah but I'm thinking why would this be a device and not a piece of software?
Custom hardware gives it the ability to communicate using body language.
Whether that's worth the extra cost, I don't know; probably not. But it does make it more interesting than "just another app".
Re: (Score:2)
indienogo
Re: (Score:2)
I had a Speak n Spell when I was a child, damn thing was awesome. I actually learned things that helped out in school. Kids today have so many technologically advanced tools available to them, there is no reason to make anything less than A's.
Your plastic pal who is fun to be with? (Score:4, Insightful)
It looks like that HHGTG is also being treated as a manual rather than as a warning.
Re:Your plastic pal who is fun to be with? (Score:4, Informative)
It looks like that HHGTG is also being treated as a manual rather than as a warning.
HHGTTG was a manual.
The summary is very confusing. (Score:1)
I don't get what the summary is trying to say. Is it saying that this robot will be your friend, but it will also molest you at the same time, thus requiring you to go get psychiatric treatment from some other robot who may very well molest you in the same, or possibly a different, way? And I have to pay $1.1 million to get one of these robots? First of all, I don't really want to be molested by a robot, even if it will remind me about my appointments. Now that I think about it more, will it schedule an app
Re: (Score:3)
Not really a robot (Score:5, Insightful)
The robot barely moves, you could pretty much just put a cell phone on a stand and run a Jibo app and it would be the same thing. Make a $100 stand that's capable of being articulated about by cell phone software, and you could do everything that's in this video.
So while the youtube video is fun, what the company is really promising is a version of Siri that's far & away better than what Apple is capable of, delivered in less than a year and a half, on a budget far smaller than Apple's. I wish them the best but I'm sorry, I have to be a knee-jerk cynic.
Re: (Score:1)
Except it moves *just enough*. It can track you and display images. Granted its more telepresence like but that remove video call at dinner was pretty awesome. That's really only possible with at least *some* sort of movement.
Besides, this has more movement than robots in some of the toyota factories you'll see and those are classified as 'robots'. So, there.
Already exists (Score:2)
This is what Nao from Aldebaran is.
creepy but familiar (Score:2)
Social robot (Score:2)
AKA: pet
Re: (Score:1)
My dog kept dropping the video camera when my wife and I wanted to make an intimate recording. Jibo won't do that.
Ergo, Jibo is much better than a pet.
My pet is a Doberman. Actually three of them. They kindly let would be burglars they're at the wrong house. In your situation a tripod will probably suffice.
Ergo, a pet is much more functional than a Jibo. As a bonus, they aren't obsolete in two years either.
Re: (Score:2)
I think he meant to type:
"They kindly let would be burglars know they're at the wrong house."
Re: (Score:1)
No problem (Score:3)
The kids are already on psy-counseling after they dropped their iPhone in the toilet.
They'll never recover completely.
Confused about 1.1 million amount (Score:3)
Currently Indigogo says that 2,575 people have contributed $1,175,564 ($457 per person).
But if you add up the people and amounts for the various perks, you get 330 people contributing $73,874 (223 per person).
Can someone explain the difference?
Re: (Score:1)
If you read the comments you can see lots of people complaining that the perk they picked is no longer visible on the page. So it seems indiegogo lets you remove perks (but without canceling the orders for that perk). So maybe that's why?
Re: (Score:2)
This seems like the most likely explanation -- thank you coward!
Re: Confused about 1.1 million amount (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I had a similar thought, but I think http://slashdot.org/comments.p... [slashdot.org] is a more likely explanation.
Robots aren't friends (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What sci-fi are you reading/watching? Robots run the gamut from friendly and helpful (R2D2) to evil (Maximilian, Ceylons).
Wait, so are you saying that I should invite the evil robots round for tea?
I got one of these (Score:1)
It's all covered in cat hair, which it leaves everywhere.
"Cloud" dependent? (Score:2)
After a bit of skimming, I couldn't really determine if this is a standalone device or something that depends on some creepy third party who will abandon it at some point? The processing demands seem a little high for a standalone, embedded processor.
Rolly (Score:2)
I can't help but be reminded of the Rolly [youtube.com]. Does this mean the next stock market crash and recession is next year? Frivolity like this just seems "toppy".
Counselling? (Score:2)
How is a child raised by a robot any more traumatized than a child raised by a television (AKA the electric babysitter)?
Now let's see how it really works ... (Score:3)
me: Hi Jibo
It spins and spins.
me: Over here. Over here. I'm standing here. Jibo. Stop spinning.
jibo: would you like take out.
me: no.
jibo: how about sushi. Your favorite food.
me:That's Lizzie's favorite.
jibo: Ordering. Unable to comply. Please check your network settings.
me: Cancel
jibo: Please say that again. I did not understand.
me: Reset. Stop.
jibo: Want me to take a picture.
me: No.
jibo: Cheese. Hard drive full. Please delete some of your pictures.
me: Stop taking pictures.
jibo: taking picture. Cheese. Hard drive full. Please delete some of your pictures.
me: Why did I buy this friggin thing?
Seriously, compare the Kinnect promo videos to how it actually turned out. That's Jibo, except from an extremely well funded company. This is just snake-oil.
future successor (Score:2)
Fleshlight? (Score:1)
2XL was the first family robot (Score:2)
It's just a 2XL and a Radio Shack Armatron glued together... I had this in 1985...
http://www.retrothing.com/2006... [retrothing.com]
http://www1.pcmag.com/media/im... [pcmag.com]
Also, a fax machine is just a waffle iron with a phone attached.