Comments | hazelbunny: effin cold

hazelbunny

effin cold

Jan 30, 2008 18:47

between Monday night and Tuesday night, the temperature dropped 50 degrees.
with 30 mph winds gusting to 45.

things I will not miss about Grinnell include: Iowa winters.

who wants to kidnap keepon with me?
you know you do.

Comments 4

uncreativeman February 1 2008, 03:53:40 UTC

That little robot is awesome. When do you think they'll start selling them in toystores?

hazelbunny February 1 2008, 09:46:37 UTC

considering that it is a pretty sophisticated (and expensive) research tool, probably not for some time. I'm not even sure that more than one exists.

my friend Tim was talking about how if he had huge piles of money he would offer it to their research, but only if they built him his own Keepon.

uncreativeman February 1 2008, 18:32:59 UTC

You could probably make a simplified version, along with mass production, that would bring the cost down. But I guess that would sorta defeat the point.

And there is more than one Keepon. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07361/844777-85.stm
Although the article does say that prototypes are too expensive and not for sale... at this point.

So you're saying about 10 years or so, then? Or maybe they'll inspire a toy company to build a cheap knock-off.

hazelbunny February 1 2008, 21:44:36 UTC

I think it really depends on what is making it expensive, and I have no knowledge that would help me make an informed time estimate.

But I do know that basically the whole point of Keepon is the programming that makes it so interactive, and there's no way a toy company could just make a knockoff of that. A look-alike that wasn't nearly as engaging, maybe. But to actually capture the appeal, they'd either have to make a deal with the creators or invest in their own program to reinvent the algorithm, which I expect would be very expensive and time-consuming.

The basic reason I don't think Keepon will be commercially available anytime soon is that my impression is the creators are focused on the research, and right now are just not interested in finding ways to mass-produce it for commercial purposes. I imagine legal issues and negotiations could get hairy, and certainly would not be conducive to their research.