I was able to hear the Hopper Conference’s final speaker, Helen Greiner (Co-founder
and Chairman of the Board, iRobot), before catching my flight home to San Jose. I had
to be there because the drawing for Sun’s contribution to the raffle (a full pass
to JavaOne next May) was right before the talk. I am very glad I stayed to listen.
I have not been very interested in robots but if anyone could make me a fan, it would be
Helen Greiner. Her talk was interesting, inspiring, and entertaining. The two
practical robot applications she presented (housecleaning, plus military scouting and bomb
disposal) are very different but both seem to work well. Watching her video of someone
throwing a tactical mobile robot scout through a glass window onto a concrete
floor only to have it right itself and work fine: going up stairs, through water,
and over rubble, was just amazing.
Helen Greiner’s sense of fun made the talk even better than its content. She showed
pictures of Rosy (the Jetson’s TV cartoon robot maid), R2D2 from “Star Wars”, and other famous
robots. She even replayed the irreverent “Saturday Night Live” fake TV ad for “Woomba”
to the great delight of the audience mostly made up of women. I wish I could have stayed
for the rest of the panels and presentations on robotics and to see the robots themselves
between sessions. What a fun ending to a great conference!
KatysBlog 