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This talk has been cancelled.   
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            IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
                Central New England Chapter

             Tuesday, October 21, 2003, 6:30 PM
                MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA


    "Designing the User Experience for Consumer Robots"

                    Jonathan Klein Ph.D.
                   Vice President, iRobot


This is a joint meeting with the Neural Network Society.

Building a robot to simply work effectively is no small task. Take,
for example, the moon rover. Simply designing that to move from one
place to another on the moon's surface is a non-trivial
problem. Neither is it trivial to design the user experience for
consumer robots. Dr. Klein will speak in regard to this aspect of
designing and building robots.


                     SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Klein received his Ph.D. from the Media Lab at MIT. He is Vice
President and Director of Interactive Toy Division at iRobot.

In the late 80's the coolest robots in the world were being developed
at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. These robots, which were
modeled on insects, captured the imagination of researchers,
explorers, military, and dreamers alike. The three iRobot founders,
Rod Brooks, Colin Angle, and Helen Greiner, saw this technology as the
basis for a whole new class of consumer products -- ones that actually
make your life easier and more fun. Since people were calling to ask
where to buy these robots after graduation, Colin and Helen left MIT
in 1990 to work fulltime on fulfilling this promise.

Along with being the iRobot Chairman and CTO, Rod is also the Director
of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, where his goal is to
understand and eventually have the robots display human intelligence.

Today, they're pushing full-steam-ahead with robots for the consumer
market and they're considered one of the country's leading robotics
R&D labs. This translates into a great benefit for their customers:
they're guaranteed cool robotic technology in every product they
make. They sell robots to government, industry, kids, and
researchers. Their robots combine the latest artificial intelligence
technology with easy-to-use interfaces. The consumer robots are
supervised by their owners and respond to a click of a button or
mouse.  The toys simply "know how they are being played with" and
respond.


                    MEETING INFORMATION

This joint meeting of the Boston chapters of the IEEE Robotics and
Automation Society and the Neural Network Society is scheduled for
6:30 PM, Tuesday, October 21st at the MIT Media Lab (Building E-15) in
the Bartos Auditorium.  It is free and open to the public. For more
information, contact Rich Maynard (chair@robotics-boston.org), Chair,
Robotics and Automation Society or Rob Reilly (reilly@media.mit.edu),
Chair, Education Society.

Directions to the MIT Media Lab, building E15, Bartos Auditorium
(lower level of the Media Lab): The Media Lab is located at 20 Ames
Street, a very short walk from the Kendall-MIT MBTA stop). From either
entrance to the Media Lab, go downstairs, and the Bartos Auditorium in
off the lobby at the foot of the stairs. The following URL contains a
map of the area:

      http://whereis.mit.edu/bin/map?locate=bldg_e15