Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewljohnson | Hacker News Reader

For some definition of robotic... I guess networked crockpot doesn't have the same ring.

Hey andrew,

It fits! I think defining robot as an anthropomorphic thing that moves around is too constricting. Mellow is an electromechanical machine that performs complex actions, based on natural language requests, taking into account its environment and context.

I think that's pretty robotic, but I welcome the debate. Didn't mean to be at all misleading, sorry if it seemed so.

I expect a "robotic sous-chef" to clean and chop ingredients for me, then prepare the food. This is much better described as a smart sous-vide cooker.

I clicked the link imaging a moving robot that chopped/prepped food. It was the sous-chef part that made me think that. I don't think I would have interpreted robotic sous-vide cooker the same way. That being said, I definitely think 'smart sous-vide cooker' is a better description and more useful tag-line.

I understand that, and I'll admit I didn't mind the ambiguity when I was choosing headlines.

Ultimately,what made me choose the "robotic" one was that we're not trying to build a smart sous-vide device, sous-vide is just technology. We're trying to build a quiet servant. And that won out.

I think people expect a robot to be able to move at least part of its body. South Africans excepted [1]

[1] http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2378730

Reply on news.ycombinator.com