Season of the robot
The '98 holiday season could easily be called the season of the robot. Computer technology combined with mechanical engineering constituted many of last year's successful gifts.
A gumdrop-shaped, obnoxious hunk of mostly mechanical parts wrapped up in a shag carpet caused the most noise. Furby fever peaked in December when desperate parents bid up prices in Internet auctions to more than six times the $30 asking price. Clever marketing and some real computer and robotic capabilities made Furby a runaway success.
Furby wasn't the only robot pal on the scene. My Interactive Pooh, a stuffed Winnie the Pooh with a PC connection, was also popular. And Microsoft's ActiMates Arthur was more approachable than its chilling Barney sibling, which was released for the '97 holiday season.
Another robotic toy captured more than just the nipper set. Lego's Mindstorms, aimed at 12- to 15-year-old boys, also captured some adults. Mindstorms wraps up a computer, sensors, motors and Lego bricks into a robotics invention system. Although the product costs $200, Lego expected to sell out its entire 1998 allotment of 80,000 units.
Adults snapped up Mindstorms and quickly forced Lego to release a true software development kit on the Internet to supplement the simple drag-and-drop programming system included with the package. Two months after release, pictures and plans of incredible homemade robots filled the Internet. My favorites include a spy robot that can navigate and take digital snapshots on its own.
Clearly, robots are big news at home. And we can certainly expect their success in the 1998 holiday season to spawn even more complex and fantastic robotic toys in the future.
But what about at work? Sure, we've had robots for a while, but they've been relegated primarily to manufacturing lines. During the '70s a few companies deployed mail-bots, designed to deliver mail to offices, but their limitations made them more of a curiosity than a productivity boon.
The price of robotic technology has dropped. You can now marry mechanical robot parts with a powerful computing engine, capable of some image recognition and with strong computational capabilities, for not a lot of money. Now that affordable and accessible robotic development systems have reached the hobby level, we'll see a range of innovative ideas and designs surface on the Web.
Inevitably, robots will move from home to work. Imagine a robot that could build and install software and hardware on your PCs. What about one that could string cables through a new office building or even add a new hard drive to a server? It won't happen tomorrow, but the robot genie is out of the bottle. It's not a large leap from a robotic Dogbert to a robotic Dilbert.
Oh, and if I could make just one prediction: Furby backlash will start in two weeks. Those shaggy gumdrops are marvels of mechanical engineering, but they are also very, very prone to failure. If you thought the trauma of a toasted Tamagotchi was tragic, just wait until those Furbys start dying. It's going to be ugly when the fur starts flying.