Apple has just hired roboticist Yoky Matsuoka the other day. Matsuoka in the winner of the MacARthur Foundation “genius” award for her work at UW using robotics to help the disabled. While it’s nothing new to have the Cupertino company hiring geniuses, one must wonder what plans they have in store. Perhaps we well see humanoid qualities bleed into the iPhone in coming years.
APPLE STEALS GOOGLE TALENT
Google is toying around with a humanoid at one point as well as self-driving cars. Matsuoka used to play a large part of that, but no more. Apple has taken her from the ranks of Google to bring her to work with Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams to help with health projects ass well as apps and mobile device in health care. Whether robotic technology will trickle down to the iPhone is yet to be seen, but surely, Apple has a use for a humanoid robot right?
HUMANOID ROBOT COULD BE USEFUL
We’ve seen Google and other companies go the way of the humanoid lately, but Apple has been relatively quiet on the subject. If they ever wanted to turn their attention away from iPhone’s and MacBook’s for a while, they would actually have the tools in place to create an impressive humanoid. For example, Siri, the popular virtual assistant that comes on iPhone is already a fairly capable A.I. Right there, the robot’s brain is built. All Apple has to do now is create the body and we could have our very own robot doing out chores, pouring our beers and walking the dog. Until then we’re left with Siri the brain to fulfill the robot-less void.
IPHONE SIRI TRICKS
While we are anxiously awaiting our very own robot, Siri will have to do. That little brain inside your iPhone is capable of far more than asking where the nearest Barnes and Noble is, because, everyone needs to know that. How about those ever so inconvenient times when you see a plane fly overhead and just need to know what it is? It happens all the time, but Siri can actually help you with that. By asking Siri “what planes are flying overhead?” Siri will use your current location and match it with a flight database to give your the answers you so desire. Sure, it’s not a walking robot, but for now, Siri will have to do.
