This is… something. A mini robot is many things: a toy, a curiosity, a hobby project, a tech development project, a distraction. I can’t see it as useful or beneficial - especially at scale. But maybe that’s not needed and niche is ok. This could lead to know-how that leads to more useful (and commercial) things like safe and privacy respecting robot vacuums (those have a lot of sensors and data gets sold) or open and controllable AI in linux tech etc.
Humanoid form is cute but it’s a human ego flaw to assume that’s an efficient form - especially in the short and mid-term. I hope the cuteness factor appeals to enough people to make this financially sound. Big tech can afford these vanity projects. I would have done the robot-vacuum (or hybrid with other tasks) step first before advancing to this but I guess it’s a PR thing for the company as well.
Pic from Toyoda museum: a robot band. The most useful of the bunch is not a (semi-)humanoid musician. [edit: The pic is just for illustration - I happened to visit there some time ago. The top of the line violinist robot was precise enough to play a regular violin but a walkman could outperform all these robots.]
True, the app subscription and cellular plan could be a potential bundle like with the Librem 5 + AweSIM.
This is an interesting perspective as it would seem logical with a humanoid robot being a seemingly niche product. The underlying technology research and experience might benefit many other tech stacks where the parts might make up more than the sum of them.
The concept of Purism’s promotional video make me think of the telepresence robot that never seemed to take off. I suspect this would be more flexible in its practicality though. One of the proposed use-cases of offering a more personal connection with people on both ends might be more difficult to achieve; just seeing reports mentioning how the Apple Vision Pro seems stagnant right now and sales are perhaps not what Apple would like, despite the impressive engineering, makes me think telecommunication could be a challenging sell outside of B2B.
That’s an interesting discussion point but I guess there’s a trade-off between efficiency and ability to sell. If people want and expect humanoid form (too many sci-fi movies?) then there is some merit in meeting the market demand. Worth also linking to: Uncanny valley - Wikipedia
Actually I would like an open source power loader (a la Alien film franchise).
I do think Robotics + AI are poised to take off. I’m not so keen on the anthropomorphism angle, but generative AI combined with physical manipulation abilities will be a huge change. Exponential growth of progress is always surprising.
However, I don’t see Purism being able to keep up. I also don’t see what they bring to the table.
“Rapid iterative milestone” development sounds like a future train wreck of reduced capabilities and missed deadlines. What’s the rush? Can we do a thoughtful separation of concerns, produce verifiable class models, then translate them into working code instead?
The MiMi will be a home computer assistant. It will be able to read the news, read your messages, give you a recipe, search for useful information from voice command, read an e-book, play your favorite music or have so many other useful applications.
It will also be able to surveil your house while you’re away, let you connect to it to move around and see through it’s eyes, alert from an intrusion, alert from a fire and more… all in a privacy respecting way.
The MiMi will also revolutionize remote social interactions. Your friends, family, partner will be able to spend time with you, physically interact with you or play with your kids, your pets all remotely. With a VR headset, one would be able to see what the MiMi sees in 3D. Imagine the immersion!
And this is only the tip of the iceberg. The MiMi is such a creative machine, fully open, with so many sensors and capabilities, there is so much one can imagine doing with it.
Regarding the crowdfunding and financing of the development, as the topic came across this thread, I wish to comment about it.
Development willl be incremental and the first target is not about having a complete robot, but about having a dev-kit with the board, sensors and software, which will already be a great base for moving forward with the MiMi and for anyone wanting to do their own robotic project.
From the experience we have in making a phone from scratch, we believe that the first crowdfunding target will be enough to finance this first development goal.
We don’t know the final cost of the product yet and it is why we are using coupons during the crowdfunding campaign.
As a technology professional, this would be a fun project to be involved in (as long as “social purpose” extends to management style); as a consumer, I would much prefer such a device from a social purpose corporation…
…but as a Librem 5 customer, I keep hearing a huge sucking sound. Hopefully, the software work is more additive than subtractive.
I encourage everyone to read the fine print in regard to what you are buying. You are not buying a MiMi or a MiMi related product. You are buying a non-refundable coupon that can be used to buy a MiMi related product if one were to ever exist. While there is a value associated to the coupon it is only for a MiMi related product and there is no promise or representation about what the MiMi (or related product) will cost. [e.g. Whatever MiMi related product you might want might end up priced at $4,000 and you have paid $2,000 into your non-refundable coupon, you’ll still need to pay an additional nearly $2,000 (you will get 10% off).]
i.e. Purism holds no risk at all and really isn’t committing to anything.
Good post. I think that was what was missing from the original post i.e. explaining what such a device could do for the customer i.e. making it more concrete.
Translation: You aren’t buying anything. You are funding R&D.
You are supporting the idea of bringing an open alternative into a world that will otherwise be made and controlled by blackbox, surveillance-capitalist corporations … by funding the development of a product.
I think we can see that Purism has learned from the Librem 5 experience. Effectively Purism has decoupled crowdfunding of the development of a product from actually purchasing the product. (But if you do decide to purchase the product then your funding of the development of the product gives you credit towards that purchase, via the coupon system.)
Purism has also already stated that this crowdfunding campaign will assess the level of interest in such a product (where genuine interest has to be shown by being prepared to put down at least a little of your hard-earned).
Yes, I think we all understand that crowdfunding is inherently higher risk for the customer than just buying an already-existing product from the store. A link above does go over some of the risks (see heading “Risks”). I think it is fair to say, comparing Librem 5 with MiMi, that less of the risk is on Purism now - but it is also the case that the supporter can control his or her financial risk to a greater extent now, again comparing Librem 5 with MiMi.
The supporter can just chuck in $5 or $20 as a one-time indication of support, and leave it at that. So it doesn’t need to be a major financial commitment if you support the idea but don’t have a lot of spare cash and/or would prefer to defer and decouple a purchasing decision entirely until when/if a product exists.
It could easily be that both parts of that are wrong - but you are right to raise the (implied) question.
The more adventurous might be able to achieve that i.e. remove brain and insert into different body. But the product has to exist first.
Now that is something completely different from what the original page tells about this. HCA is very different from a robot. Very different designs, goals, systems, problems to solve and usecases. Makes me worried for the project. If that’s the goal, the core idea, then - remembering what I said about the walkman - it would be more sensible to make that sans the mechanized body. The cute hardware is a distraction from the core use idea and adds a lot of cost and complexity with very little in return (for company, in usability, in value for user etc.), as far as I can tell.
What would be a more realistically achievable and financially sensible approach? How a bout a a simple “soupcan speaker” type “brain” first (or do other design choise, like a wallframe using an already existing Purism tablet or that hybrid vacuumdroid) and then doing a network of various add-ons (sensors, displays, speaker-mics, droids etc.) that the user can choose to increase assistant system. When there’s a working home assistant system and users, a humanoid droid might come into play.
So, I guess my question is: Why go for the biggest and most complex single monolithic do-it-all system, both as a design choice and as a strategic business decision? [edit: Expanding on the latter, what does a robot do for Purism other than differentiate it, what products come after it and where does it lead - more toys or a more private robot dog (with flamethrower) - and how do those align with the current portfolio. I’m likely not a customer but this affects how much life I see in other products.]
@JR-Fi, What I meant in my post is that the MiMi will be a home computer assistant but not only. In its latest evolution, it will be able to let you command or control it to move around and do things that a static device cannot do. I gave some example applications of what a simple home computer cannot do like remotely entering it to use its eyes and move around in your house to check that everything is OK when you’re not at home. It could do so much more like feeding your fish or your cat every day, watching your baby during their sleep… so much we can imagine a robotic device doing. With so many hardware/physical capabilities, imagination is the limit really.
Regarding you concerns, if you re-check the page you will see that it is a multi-year project with milestones and one can decide to stop supporting when they are happy with the product.
The first milestone will be a simple board, with sensors and software (mainly for devs)
The second milestone will be a simple home computer with a screen, cameras, speakers, mic… (that’s the head of the robot).
The third milestone will be the head, with arms, running on wheels.
The fourth and final milestone will be the humanoid robot with legs.
While true that it probably could do those things (if it can open bags, raise to tables and cabinet shelves etc.), I maintain that the mobile robot is not the most efficient, economical etc. choice to do that. Static sensors maintain constant vigilance in comparison to roaming guard, automatic fishfeeders are already a thing and quite simple (pretty sure there’s one for cats too), nannycams are less intrusive and quiet than a moving droid etc. A robot makes sense if something needs to be moved (and in this case that can’t be very big due to it’s size and reach) and it can’t be pre-automated, and for situations that occur randomly and seldom.
The latter points do give a bit of hope that the first milestones could by themselves be useful in the context of smart living. That however needs a largish ecosystem of various compatible devices and a general open control protocol. Developing those would be big. I hope this will be compatible, as that would increase its value (to be able to have a trusted control of other smart devices and have them be able to interact). Robots are cool and have fun with them if you want but they are not what I’d give money for, they are not a solution to actual problem or need.
[edit to add: Make it vacuum as well and give it a flamethrower and I might change my mind. Stretchgoals? ]
Perhaps there is a generic question here, summarised as: jack of all trades, master of none. A general purpose computer will very rarely be the best at doing any given specialised task, but one general purpose computer can cover a wide range of tasks. Could that logic also apply to a robot of this type? Only the future will answer that.
In other words, sure, as a hypothetical, I can buy a number of cat feeders and a large number of fixed IP cameras (albeit with PTZ) and provide cat feeding services and remote visual surveillance services without even having a computer, much less a robot. Or one robot can in theory do both tasks.
Where a robot would shine is in handling unforeseen circumstances. For example, I have my doubts that there are cat feeders that will order more cat food and replenish the cat feeder if the human carer is unexpectedly delayed by days more than planned (but I stand to be corrected if someone links to such a product).
I don’t doubt that there are some challenges here with these tasks - such as whether a noisy, moving robot would so freak out the cats that they wouldn’t eat anyway - or that as the robot moved clumsily, opening a door, going through it, closing a door … a cat would shoot through the open door, because we all know that open doors trigger superluminal motion in cats.
I agree with you that this is a big project and I hope that Purism has a good handle on cost and time!
PureOS libre software, perhaps with a package that you install to put it into security camera mode with code from ZoneMinder or MotionEye
bonus points if the camera has an attachment to let me feed a pet and power via outlet like this robot can do, or if there is a easy way to use it as a baby monitor streaming to a Librem 5/11 for example
additional bonus points if it could do vehicle, person, pet, package face detection/recognition, and various noise detection like pets, babies, fire alarm, locally on-camera, or on the NVR
Maybe combined that with a 3.5" HDD 64DD-style to the Librem Mini perhaps, using a WD Purple or Seagate Skyhawk for recording, E2EE to the device, and I’d buy a 4-pack. MSRP $1.5k-$3.0k.
Maybe it’s just me but I feel a camera baby monitor is a little less creepy than having a robot standing in the room watching. You can also mount the camera at an angle that can see the baby. This robot is too short to do that it seems too. Same with feeding the fish if they’re in a tank instead of a pond, unless it can scale up things. This is what I mean by I don’t know if the vision is fully flushed out yet.
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