The Future of Home Robotics Is... A Desk Lamp? Apple's ELEGNT Vision
It seems there is no end to what engineers will try to turn into a robot. If they can create it, market it as useful, and label it the next best thing—most people will be interested. And no company does this better than Apple. And while there is a lot of criticism for Apple with its advancement of phones that cost mind-boggling prices while offering barely any new standout features, the company continues to thrive.
Further extending its influence and genius, the company seems to be trying to get into the home robotics market. In an article from Investor's Business Daily, Patrick Seitz reported that TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted that Apple is exploring both humanoid and nonhumanoid robots are part of its future smart-home ecosystem.
And the first on the list? A robotic lamp that conveys expressions and emotions—like the Pixar lamp. This is the perfect example of its marketing genius. Everyone loves the Pixar lamp. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the video below.
As reported by Alexis Gajewski, senior editor at Plant Services, Apple is developing what it calls ELEGNT, a "prototyping of a lamp-like robot that explores the interplay between functional and expressive objectives in movement design". That quote comes from Apple's newly released paper, titled "ELEGNT: Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot," written by Yuhan Hu, Peide Huang, Mouli Sivapurapu, and Jian Zhang.
In addition to the paper, the research team also released a video to show its vision for the robot and how it interacts with humans. It's shown reacting to simple hand waves and gestures, moving its light in different directions including up, down, forward, and back, and extending its arm to do so. It also appears to shake its head or "tail".
Apple's idea, or goal, is to take robotics to a new level by trying to do something that a lot of other robotics engineers have failed to do. Make the robot move smoothly, "elegantly" as the company stated, and be able to be expressive in its movements.
This project is still in the development and research stage and might not go anywhere. But if it does take off and actually makes it to mass development, a whole generation of people will never know the joy of holding a flashlight for your dad.
About the Author
Laura Davis
Editor-in-Chief, New Equipment Digest
Laura Davis is the editor in chief of New Equipment Digest (NED), a brand part of the Manufacturing Group at EndeavorB2B. NED covers all products, equipment, solutions, and technology related to the broad scope of manufacturing, from mops and buckets to robots and automation. Laura has been a manufacturing product writer for eight years, knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the industry, along with what readers are looking for when wanting to learn about the latest products on the market.