We recently introduced our lovely readers to the concept of telexistence – the merger of virtual reality and robotics – in which a human plugs into the Matrix to operate a remote humanoid-like machine. At the moment, it’s more of a parlor trick, but practical applications are literally out of this world, with one use […]
One of the most famous bonehead quotes from a chief executive who brushed off technological disruption came from Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes in 2008. He said, “Neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.” Two years later, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy and Keyes got a job stocking DVDs in […]
Nary a week goes by that we don’t hear about how the latest robotic technology will take our jobs away. The newest piece of news on this theme of “automation taking jobs” comes from the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that spends its time figuring out how much we’re screwing up the future […]
We first covered Knightscope and its robot security guards in our article on “7 Security Robots “Complementing” Security Guards” late last year. These autonomous Daleks are set to disrupt the $34 billion US security services industry, and with the ongoing wage issues and unionization of security guards, the time is ripe for technology to “help out”. Since Knightscope has released its […]
A couple of years ago, we told you about two companies that had developed what could be best described as Star Wars droid couriers. It seemed pretty niche at the time. Now we learn that there are more than a half-dozen startups offering delivery robot services, which seems to be part of a larger trend […]
With the advent of drones that fly near continuously and self-driving transport vehicles, there is little doubt that robotics will be a dominating technology theme for the next few decades. Over time, we would expect to see more and more autonomous robots around us going about doing automated tasks. There are now robots that sling pizzas, […]
One of the many classic scenes in The Office is the very first scene ever when David Brent picks up the phone and tries to get one of his employees a fork lift driving job using a bit of old fashioned nepotism. Not a fan of the U.K. office are you? You say the U.S. […]
In a recent article, we talked about the coming “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and how astute investors might capitalize on this new age we’re entering. The topic is not without controversy, as robotics combined with artificial intelligence stand to threaten many existing service jobs while also creating new jobs along the way. One of the “low […]