‘I, Robots’ Come to Homes in Thousands

KT will install the robots, which can be updated every day through a wireless Internet network, at as many households across the nation in a couple of weeks.

``A thousand robots comprising five sorts of wheeled models will be put in homes in three cities _ 700 in Seoul, 200 in Kwangju and 100 in Taegu _ by mid-November for feasibility check,’’ MIC Project Manager Oh Sang-rok said.

``The test is geared toward checking the viability of our network-enabled robots before commercially debuting them early next year at a price of around $1,000 each,’’ Oh said.

Additionally, two types of robot will be placed in airports, train stations and robotic exhibition halls in Seoul and its vicinity.

All the home and public automatons will be operated through Nespot, the wireless connectivity services provided by KT around hotspots.

``High-end models of the robots can recognize human voices to follow instructions. People can also give orders via a remote controller or a touch-sensitive screen,’’ Oh said.

``The robots have various applications, such as reading books for kids, ordering food or connecting to the Web. Another plus is that their applications will be improved everyday, as they are hooked up to the network,’’ Oh said.

Stand-Alone vs Network Robots

Futuristic robots are required to have the three basic functions of sensing, processing and acting, and scientists have tried to produce a stand-alone model equipped with all the three capabilities.

As a result, the prices of smart robots have been prohibitively high thus far, and the general public hasn’t been able to afford them.

In this climate, the Korean government selected an alternative way of producing affordable mobile robotic platforms, by outsourcing the sensing and procession functions through connections to the Web.

``Think about how the Internet caused a paradigm shift in the PC industry. People download software through the Internet instead of installing it when they purchase a computer,’’ Oh said.

``Robots will take a similar path. Stand-alone robots will give way to network-based ones. Programs can be renewed everyday via the network,’’ he said.

The strategy makes sense here since the country has the world’s top per capita high-speed Internet penetration rate with four in five homes connected to the always-on broadband.

But some experts point out that the government’s high expectations on the network-empowered robots are premature because they are far away from a commercial premiere.

Indeed, the MIC projected in 2004 that the network robots would hit shops in 2006, but the predictions proved wrong, as tests are still underway.

Furthermore, the MIC has installed just 43 network robots, and nobody knows whether 1,000 robots will be supplied to households for the test runs.

``The government has spent up to $10 million to develop network-based robots. But their commercial viability is still under suspicion,’’ said a Seoul robotics expert, who declined to be named.

Source : http://times.hankooki.com/times.htm