Frankenstein Complex and iRobot's future

Kevin Kelleher at GigaOm has a theory about stagnant sales at iRobot, and it's called the Frankenstein Complex. Isaac Asimov coined the phrase to describe the fear of robots and Kelleher thinks it explains why we North Americans have not embraced the machines in our homes like the Japanese have in theirs. In his post Kelleher says "The Burlington, Mass., company went public nearly two years ago and its share price has spent much of last year below the $24 offering price. Revenue from consumer products –60% of iRobot’s revenue last year – fell 1% in the first half of 2007 from a year ago."

My experience with robots is more in the software realm of chat robots, but I tend to agree that they can be seen as a little creepy by some. I have found that the more human looking, the creepier they get. I just don't think that we (collective) are afraid of the Roomba, it's probably more to do with the fact that they are not as easily obtained as say a Dyson, and also not really mass marketed. I'd venture a guess that most people have never heard of them! I'd love one, but until my old upright throws in the towel I'm not motivated enough to purchase. On the other hand, the ConnectR and perhaps even the Looj are both something that I don't already have, fill a gap that is not met by any other device, and therefore I might be convinced to purchase.

Interesting theory though.

iRobot and Tazer team up to break laws of robotics

As if I need to remind you, iRobot famous for their Roomba vacuum cleaner robot and Scooba the floor mopping robot, takes its name from an Isaac Asimov's science fiction novel of the same name. In the book Asimov wrote the 3 laws of robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

So the question is, with iRobot's fitting of it's military robot (PackBot) with Taser International Inc.'s electric stun gun technology, does this battlefield marriage contradict the laws of the namesake? The Taser fitted PackBot is said to be remotely controlled by a human operator and therefore will not be enabled to decide who to target and when to fire it's weapon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against giving the good guys the advantage and keeping police and/or military men and women out of harms way, I just find it a little ironic!