Ask HN: What would you like this robot to do?
Phase one of my plan is to build a robot with the following combination of technologies: a Kinect, a laser-projector, an omni-directional mobile platform, and a permanent internet connection. It explicitly does not have any manipulators because I don't believe the tech is suitable or cheap enough for consumers yet. Likewise legs, anthropomorphism, and the idea of robot-as-household-slave. Targeting a price point and market similar to a high-end laptop, I want to ensure the tech is rock solid, sufficiently cheap, and - in combination - becomes a platform technology for subsequent ideas.
The Kinect lets us build maps and localise using SLAM, perform face-tracking and recognition using the camera, and enables voice control using the microphone. The projector lets us draw on any surface (laser projectors are focus-less), and the omni-directional platform lets us keep an image in a stable position while moving the robot elsewhere. The permanent internet connection let us farm out computationally intensive tasks (like learning, inference, and map correction) to the cloud, interact with other internet connected devices in the home, and to source exteroceptive sensory data like news, weather, remote commands, etc. There's a few other features that are less interesting but necessary, like a ring of IR sensors on the base for short-range obstacle avoidance, a pan-tilt head for the projector that lets us point it somewhere different to the Kinect, and batteries sufficient for at least two hours of full activity. To build a business starting from this product, it will eventually require an app store that offers new applications and tasks, as well as new drivers to control or receive information from additional devices.
Ultimately, I envisage this and subsequent robots as the heart of an interconnected home. Like a butler with no arms, but who uses the Force to control all your other electronic devices. (OK, that analogy could use some work...)
My question to HN is - what would you like this robot to do?
Some examples to get the ball rolling: * Project a ticker-tape of HN headlines on your wall. * Show previews of the shows on other channels onto the space around your TV. * Respond to queries such as "Is Sophie in the Lounge Room?" - both in person, and remotely via the web. * Connect to wifi-enabled lighting and turn it off when people leave the room. * Monitor and log resident's locations and activities over time, ultimately to enable applications such as optimising heating/cooling in each room. * Verbally describe your agenda for the day. * Send you an SMS/email if someone enters your home during the day, with video. * Animate a school of fish swimming across your walls, avoiding obstacles such as pictures and doorways. * Using the SLAM map, calculate the dimensions of the house, carpeted area, etc.
As for the next steps, I'm posting this question because the biggest risk factor right now is "does anyone want this?" I work with a lot of talented people, many of them wanting to work on cool consumer technologies such as this, but most too risk adverse to quit their salaries and dive in to a pre-revenue startup. I need to find some partners - preferably two; one hardware, one a better programmer than me - and a mentor who's built a product company before. I've got leads in both directions, but nothing solid at this point. Assuming there's some interest in the concept (and prior to this question, my chats at networking events have all been enthusiastic, but there's a huge selection bias there, and here for that matter) I'm going to run a hackathon with a select few workmates and students on my poaching list. We'll start by building the sensor/projector part, because our laboratory already has the perfect omni-directional platform, and we can probably license that tech. Then, with something to show off, I'll start pitching for grants and investment.