The company behind the adorably doomed robot Kuri is shutting down
theverge.com
theverge.com
I think something like Kuri could be successful at $200-300 price point but not the $700 preorder price they listed. I bet we’ll see a low cost clone of this in the next few years.
In contrast, wikipedia starts with: "Timehop is an application for smartphones that collects old photos and posts from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Dropbox photos and distributes the past."
I’m not sure if they had an SDK to develop integrations on top, but if they had such an ecosystem I think I would pick up one for home use to hack upon.
A bit disappointed they had to shut down before they had a proper product.
People would pay real dollars for a home robot that did basic choirs but so far that hasn't been the focus. Maybe it's too hard of a problem to solve still, or maybe they overvalued the usefulness of an entertainment robot, or maybe it's a bit of both. I just hope this doesn't kill the dream of a truly useful home robot.
They're very inefficient. Perhaps the 980 with the camera is better at mapping, but my 880 and an ancient 551 feel like they take hours to clean a single room. Granted, I can do something else entirely while it wastes time, but it feels weird. (I simply take them from room to room and lock them in for an hour or two, and then move them. I don't want to waste all day with the bots cleaning my house, and I've learned I can't trust them not to get into trouble by themselves.)
Also, they're not the most powerful vacuums. They're fine for regular maintenance cleaning, but they can't replace a regular vacuum.
Now if only I can find a robot to dust...
Sony's Aibo is quite pricey, but sold pretty well. And it has little functionality beyond being cute.