“The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) yesterday kicked off pilot runs of 1,000 robots together with KT, the country’s leading Internet service provider,”the Korea Times reports.”KT will install the robots, which can be updated every day through a wireless Internet network, at as many households across the nation in a couple of weeks.”A thousand robots comprising five sorts of wheeled models will be put in homes in three cities,700 in Seoul, 200 in Kwangju and 100 in Taegu,by mid-November for feasibility check,” MIC Project Manager Oh Sang-rok said.”The test is geared toward checking the viability of our network-enabled robots before commercially debuting them early next year at a price of around $1,000 each,” Oh said.Additionally, two types of robot will be placed in airports, train stations and robotic exhibition halls in Seoul and its vicinity.All the home and public automatons will be operated through Nespot, the wireless connectivity services provided by KT around hotspots.”High-end models of the robots can recognize human voices to follow instructions. People can also give orders via a remote controller or a touch-sensitive screen,” Oh said.’The robots have various applications, such as reading books for kids, ordering food or connecting to the Web. Another plus is that their applications will be improved everyday, as they are hooked up to the network,” Oh said”.Further,”think about how the Internet caused a paradigm shift in the PC industry. People download software through the Internet instead of installing it when they purchase a computer,” Oh said.”Robots will take a similar path. Stand-alone robots will give way to network-based ones. Programs can be renewed everyday via the network,” he said”.

‚ÄòI, Robots’ Come to Homes in Thousands