I would suppose that Sony’s most famous robot release would be their beloved Aibo, which happens to be a robotic pooch that was the bomb back in the day, although the $1,900 price tag back then would make any potential customer think more than just twice as to whether to splurge that kind of money on what is essentially an expensive toy. I think that even when we factor in inflation today, $1,900 can still do plenty for the average man on the street who is more interested in bread and butter issues. Well, it seems that Sony is not quite out of the robotics scene just yet, having filed for a patent that will focus on a camera lens that could be used in a robot hand.
So far, it remains rather tricky to determine as to how this particular patent is going to be implemented, although the patent filing was accompanied by images of a few robots, where one of them can be seen above. It looks like NEC’s PaPeRo from certain angles, and the idea put forward by Sony seems to point to this robot being able to wash itself whenever it becomes dirty, allowing it to maintain itself while helping humans out in everyday chores.
Sounds convenient, no? This patent sees Sony crossing their fingers that such a robot can clean its sensitive camera eyes alone, and know just when it is due for a cleaning. This is made possible by comparing images snapped across time to figure out whether there is grit and grease building up. I do wonder whether the Transformers have such inclinations…