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It all sounds a little like a quaint space-age version of the future: "How's the weather today, honey?" "Jupiter, tell daddy what the weather is like -- the news too." "Mom, go ask Jupiter about the message our teacher sent home."
After a hectic morning, Jupiter the friendly household robot takes some quality time off to recharge. Although it's only been a week since Jupiter became a member of the household, everyone agrees that they simply can¡¯t live without it. Mom can call on her cell phone and ask the robot to show her if she turned off the gas by pointing its camera. The kids also love a robot that obeys their every command to sing to them or read them a story as soon as they come home from school. Jupiter has its hands full with the daily chores, but perhaps somewhere in its electronic brain it worries that its owners may compare it to Nettoro next door, who can also clean the house.
That is the scenario envisaged by the makers of five helper robots to be introduced to the nation in October. Yujin Robot's Jupiter, Hanool Robotics Corporation's Nettoro, IO Tech's Roboid, Samsung Electronics house-cleaning robot and Dasatech's robotic dog Genibo will all go on sale to the public for a price in the region of US$1,000. The service robots for household use combine functions of PCs, pets, and electrical appliances. Unlike a PC, the robots ¡°understand¡± their master¡¯s voice, and they can be controlled from a distance using a remote control or cell phone.
The defining characteristic is the fact that they make use of Internet networking. The strategy is to compensate for the country's deficiency in robotics hardware compared to Japan or the U.S., taking advantage of the fact that 72 percent of Korean households are wired with high-speed Internet access. Every robot has a unique network address and is wired to a highly efficient external computer that serves as its brains. Thus the robot itself is relatively simple, and relatively cheap. Of course, the devices can to connect to the Internet to receive information in real time.
The government has its eye on a 15 percent global market share in robotics, industry production of $30 billion, $20 billion in exports, and the creation of 100,000 jobs in the industry by 2013, which would place the country third in robotics in the world. Currently, with a volume of $350 million, the country is in sixth place. In 2004 some 6,000 cleaning robots were sold, a number that jumped to a promising 30,000 last year. As the New York Times said, Korea is moving fast towards a science fiction lifestyle where each household has its own robotic helper.
But it is by no means assured that the devices will catch on. The man in charge of the government¡¯s robotics project, Dr. Oh Sang-rok, worries that such humanoid household robots do not serve a clear purpose. Prof. Oh Jun-ho of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology says as the house-cleaning robots show, a faster road to widespread use may be the ¡°robot-ization¡± of common household appliances. That is the reason the world will be watching how Korea¡¯s October experiment turns out.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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