2008: Year of the Home Robot

The recently released ComputerWorld report, Personal Tech: Top Ten Trends, placed home robots as the number three top trend, right behind number one flash-based subnotebooks, and number two free internet access. They peg 2008 as the year that “very intelligent and very affordable” home robots go mainstream, and for this they thank the move to having a WiFi-connected computer as the robot’s brain instead of having it onboard. In doing so, the cost of the robot’s “brain” is removed from the price tag as will now be handled by the PC or other computer or game platform you already own.

In particular, as examples of home robots to come, they mention the Hanson Robotics’ Zeno humanoid and a rumored comeback of Sony’s AIBO robot pet dog. The incredibly cool Zeno (click image above for a video) will be very human-like, with the ability to walk and talk, show emotions, make eye contact and know you by name and what you look like. Sony will possibly bring back its ABIO robot dog as the new and improved ABIO PS. But this new version moves the robot’s brain out of the dog and into a Sony PlayStation. The new pooch will respond to your voice commands, and with the cam on its forehead, it will guard your home, even emailing you photos of any intruders. Here’s a video of the previous version of the ABIO. As you can see, the original is great, so we have high hopes for the successor.

Here is a video of the current and now discontinued AIBO, playing with a cat.