The Internet of Things, which is helping bring robotics and various related technologies to the masses, is increasingly entering our homes. After last week’s announcement of a substantial infusion of capital at start-up SmartThings, the latest example comes from home automation company August, which today reported $8 million in Series A funding. The company’s flagship
The last six months have seen a number of moves toward standardizing the development of the “Internet of Things” on the part of major tech firms. Efforts as wide-ranging as a partnership between Oracle and Freescale and a consortium of ABB, Bosch, Cisco, and LG are telling signs of the increasing sense of both opportunity
The latest installment of the White House “We the Geeks” series of Google+ Hangouts, scheduled for later today, will feature a maker movement theme. “We the Geeks” is designed to highlight the future of science, technology and innovation in the United States. A previous edition, held in August, was all about robots. Today’s event —
The economic effects of innovations like 3-D printing and robotics aren’t always readily apparent. For instance, 3-D printing is recognized as a way for businesses to cheaply create prototypes, but it’s not widely viewed as a way to reduce expenses in school classrooms. 3-D printing company MakerBot, however, sees an opportunity. MakerBot is holding a
3-D printing has been hailed as the next big thing for a while now, but as the technology continues to improve and cost decreases, it appears to be on the cusp of breaking out in a big way. Exhibit A — a newly released research report by MarketsandMarkets predicts the segment will expand at an
Romotive Inc., the company behind the iPhone-powered Romo personal robot, has inked a deal to exclusively sell their robots at Brookstone stores through the end of 2013. This is the first major distribution deal for Romotive, which was founded back in 2011 and initially gained attention through a pair of highly successful Kickstarter campaigns. The
The commercial marketplace for unmanned aircraft systems remains relatively untapped in the U.S., and at this point the holdup is more regulatory than technological. However, as the Congressional deadline for integrating UAS into the National Airspace System approaches, companies are betting that will change very quickly. One such company — Modern Technology Solutions Inc., which
The “smart home” industry is booming these days, attracting interest and investment from companies with their feet in every corner of the tech sector. Healthy as that accelerating competition is for innovation, however, it raises a corollary concern over the proliferation of proprietary systems that can’t communicate. Even as more and more groups are trumpeting
Aldebaran Robotics and Nuance Communications reported this week that Aldebaran’s Nao robot will integrate new voice capabilities from Nuance that will allow it to have more natural conversations with humans. Massachusetts-based Nuance sells the popular Dragon speech recognition software and was recently revealed to be behind Apple’s Siri digital assistant. Nao has integrated voice recognition
Anki, the robotic start-up backed by $50 million in venture capital that made a splash at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, has just released details on its first product, Anki Drive. Anki Drive will be available for $199 in Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada, on Apple.com and Anki.com starting Oct. 23. (The
