The Future of Consumer Robots

Consumer robots have been part of popular culture for decades, fueling visions of having robots living alongside humans in our homes to assist with daily tasks, entertain, educate, and socialize. However, the promise of consumer robotics remains largely unfulfilled. Cleaning robots, such as robotic vacuums, dominate the market and we are years away from widespread adoption of the robot types with which people have envisioned sharing their homes. However, there is renewed interest in consumer robotics with companies introducing new innovations and product categories. Additionally, traditional consumer robotics companies are actively using artificial intelligence (AI) to make their robots smarter and extend their capabilities while integrating with other smart home devices.

Robotic toys, which, until now, were largely gimmicky, are transforming into interactive and personalized connected play devices, as well as useful educational tools as a part of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-based curriculum. According to Tractica’s latest robotics forecasting, worldwide sales of consumer robots reached $5.6 billion in 2018 and Tractica expects that the market will continue to experience strong growth over the next few years, reaching a market value of $19 billion by the end of 2025. Tractica forecasts that worldwide consumer robot unit shipments will increase from 15.4 million in 2018 to 65.9 million units annually by 2025.

This Tractica report examines the global market trends for consumer robots and provides market sizing and forecasts for shipments and revenue during the period from 2018 through 2025. The report focuses on crucial market drivers and challenges, in addition to assessing the most important technology issues that will influence market development. Market forecasts are segmented by world region and robot type, in addition to data on technology and connectivity attach rates.

Completely wireless smart home gadgets

Computers, smartphones, wearable devices, even smart home sensors: No matter how long their batteries last, they all have to be plugged in to a power source to be charged. But as Mark Harris reports for MIT’s Technology Review, University of Washington researchers have developed technology that enables gadgets to work and communicate using only energy harvested from nearby TV, radio, mobile phone, and Wi-Fi signals.  Home automation is exactly what it sounds like: automating the ability to control items around the house—from window shades to pet feeders—with a simple push of a button (or a voice command). Some activities, like setting up a lamp to turn on and off at your whim, are simple and relatively inexpensive. Others, like advanced surveillance cameras, may require a more serious investment of time and money.

The best choice of smart home hub is the Wink Hub 2. The device is great for a number of reasons, namely that it supports a huge range of standards – including Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Kidde, and Lutron Clear Connect. It also works with Amazon's Alexa, and IFTTT. The technology, which uses a principle called backscattering to selectively reflect incoming radio waves to construct new signal, is headed toward commercialization. Within just a few years, this should result in battery-free gadgets for your smart home, including security cameras, temperature sensors, and smoke alarms that never have to be charged.

There are many smart home product categories, so you can control everything from lights and temperature to locks and security in your home. They also happen to make fantastic gifts, whether you're shopping for the holidays or buying a housewarming present. Here's a rundown of the best products we've tested for every room of the house.

A synthetic human genome is completed

In May 2010, scientists created the first artificial lifeform. Mycoplasma laboratorium was a new species of bacterium, with man-made genetic code originating on a computer and placed on a synthetic chromosome inside an empty cell. Using its new "software", the cell could generate proteins and produce new cells.In March 2016, the same research institute in the U.S. announced the creation of a minimal bacterial genome, known as JCVI-syn3.0, containing only the genes necessary for life, and consisting of 473 genes. Whereas the original project (HGP-Read) was intended to "read" DNA to understand its code, the HGP-Write project would use the cellular machinery provided by nature to "write" new code, producing vast DNA chains.

The bacterial genome created in 2016 had 531,000 DNA base pairs and 473 genes. By contrast, the HGP-Write project would be orders of magnitude larger and more complex, with three billion base pairs and 20,000 genes. However, the earlier work on bacterial genomes had paved the way for new tools and semi-automated processes for whole genome synthesis. Longer term, the project would lead to transformative applications. Previously, the capability to construct DNA sequences in cells was mostly limited to a small number of short segments, restricting the ability to manipulate and understand biological systems. After the completion of HGP-Write, the ability to synthesise large portions of the human genome leads to major advances – in medicine, agriculture, energy and other areas – by connecting the sequence of bases in DNA with their physiological and functional behaviours.

 Some health applications that arise from HGP-write include the growing of transplantable human organs, engineering of immunity to viruses in cell lines, engineering cancer resistance in cell lines, and enabling high-productivity vaccines at low cost. HGP-Write involves taking synthetically constructed DNA to produce a human genome able to power a single cell in a dish. In the more distant future, however, this area of biology advances to the point where entire synthetic people can be designed from scratch – new custom-made "super humans" able to resist all disease infections, or made immune to the radiation and vacuum in space, for example. This leads to profound ethical questions about the nature of life.

Measuring battery life

Poor battery life is affecting the take-up of too many devices. One of the technical reasons holding back the uptake of Internet of Things (IoT) products is poor battery life. While power has always been crucial, from a hardware perspective these devices require layers of software to operate. This can mean that choosing the wrong protocol or a failure to take into account the impact of software updates can help to ruin the overall user experience. It offers an integrated method for performing automated measurements and testing, explains Samuelsson.

In low-power embedded systems the choice of SoC or MCU is perhaps the most significant, and semiconductor vendors have taken many approaches to saving power. Sometimes peripherals, coupled with a direct memory access (DMA) controller, move data to and from SRAM without the processor needing to be active. But from the microcontroller’s datasheet alone that is hard to assess, says Samuelsson. By providing control over the supply voltage while measuring the current consumption, various power source strategies can be evaluated. If the impact of sub-circuitry needs to be understood, the differential analogue input on the expansion connector, together with a small resistance in the supply line, allows the power impact to be clearly separated out from the total power consumption.

The second key element, according to Samuelsson is the serial data RX input of the expansion port. Serial communication data can be captured via this interface at rates of 9600 bits per second (bps) up to 4Mbps. Any logging messages output by the application are then time-stamped and synchronised with the other time-domain measurements. A real-time operating system (RTOS)-based application could, together with instrumented trace logging via a UART, be tracked as it switched between tasks and into and out of its idle-task and low-power modes. The final element is the single-ended analogue input that is available when differential-mode power measurements are not being made.

Braille smart watch

The world’s first braille smart watch for the blind human. The team behind the Dot Watch explain how their wearable device will break down barriers. An estimated 285 million people in the world are visually impaired, this includes legally blind and visually impaired persons (VIP). Yet, for the last two decades there have been no new technology innovations geared towards these groups, according to ‘Dot’, a braille smart watch producer Educational and day-to-day life has, therefore, remained severely limited.” Dot intends to alleviate this “digital divide” between visually impaired and sighted communities by providing a technology which is inclusive, easy-to-use and accessible.

To indicate different types of notification (e.g. a phone call and a message), the watch also features different vibration patterns. Wearers can then use the buttons on the side of the watch to read select information. The device comes with the option to have scrolling automated or manual to make it accessible to both proficient and slower braille readers. The Dot Mini is designed to enhance the vision of supplying educational devices to the visually impaired, with a focus on children in developing countries who are not able to afford costly devices. While the company intends for the Dot Pad to be the next product to make an impactful social difference in the areas of education, employment, and access to information for the blind and the visually impaired.

“In a world of video content and images,” Choi says, the information gap for the blind and visually impaired is getting bigger and bigger. This is because the only technology that allows them to have real-time information in tactile are the one-line braille displays. Imagine having to calculate math problems horizontally or read an entire book one sentence at a time. The company is currently working on its Dot Public, a smart-city solution for inclusive technology supporting information. Through this tech, the company hopes to make public infrastructure accessible - having information accessible in bus stops, public buildings and all kinds of transportation

Student-Oriented Classes

     Teacher-oriented classes where students receive lectures from teachers will be out and student-centered learning will be in. Students will read, scrutinize text, work on applications and problems till they find the solution and come up with solutions and even definitions based on their activities. As they will have been actively involved in arriving at the solution, students will retain the lessons learned more effectively. Student-centered learning means inverting the traditional teacher-centered understanding of the learning process and putting students at the centre of the learning process. In the teacher-centered classroom, teachers are the primary source for knowledge.

A teaching Strategies to Create a Student-Centered Classroom. Today's teachers are moving more toward a student-centered classroom. They are learning to give up some of the control and allow students to be motivated by their interests, be part of the decision-making process, as well as all other aspects of their learning. Pros. Students learn important communicative and collaborative skills through group work. Students learn to direct their own learning, ask questions, and complete tasks independently. 

Students are more interested in learning activities when they can interact with one another and participate actively.Student centered learning only works for well-behaved children. Well-trained and reflective teachers can use student centered learning to create a classroom environment that engages active children and captures their interest. Once the engagement occurs, even the most boisterous child can focus and learn.

LessonCast

A Lessoncast is taking teacher preparation and professional development to the next level. A lessoncast is a short, 3-minute multimedia presentation, created by teachers for teachers. With a suite of easy-to-use tools and resources, users are guided through the process of creating interactive and engaging lessoncasts. In terms of teacher preparation, new instructors can now access clear and concise explanations of ideas and objectives, based on the advice and experience of senior teachers. The lessoncast can also be a great tool for teacher professional development, as it allows for easy collaboration between users. It can be used to demonstrate best practices and to showcase effective teaching strategies for specific areas.

Teachers need help and support with their lesson plans just as much as students need help with studying for exams. LessonCast allows teachers to submit a 2-minute lesson plan strategy, idea, or resource using video, documents, Powerpoint, etc. and share it with other instructors.The free-based software is just another way to offer networking opportunities and a general pool of knowledge that globally impacts education in a positive way. Teachers Paying Teachers is a similar network that allows educators to sell their lesson plans to other instructors.

The biggest advantage of a lessoncast is its short length. Limiting each clip to just 3 minutes ensures that teachers are engaged and focused while absorbing the material prepared by their peers. Viewers can easily grasp the important takeaways regarding specific topic areas and teaching techniques without excess information. Tools are available to help instructors establish clear learning expectations. Instructors can also attach a transcript of their recorded lesson, as well as supplementary resources that can be downloaded by viewers. Lessoncasts are great bite-sized resources for teacher preparation and professional development.