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Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in The Door Into Summer
by Robert Heinlein

Engaging novel about a genius electronics engineer who creates general purpose robots for everyone to use. A greedy business partner and faithless fiancee trick him into cold sleep - not realizing that the future holds a way to help him get back at them. A careful reading of this novel provides insight into the character of the Heinlein Individual; a self-reliant American with a very particular set of values.

Science fiction in the News articles describe real-world events that relate to the ideas and inventions in sf novels and movies. Select a news article:

Pilkington Activ Glass - The Invisible Squeegee Of Window-Willie
   Pilkington Activ glass has a coating of microcrystalline titanium oxide that acts as an "invisible squeegee" to allow the surface to clean itself.

iRobot Scooba And Heinlein's 'Hired Girl' Robot
   Heinlein thought of it - iRobot implemented it - it only took us fifty years to catch up to RAH (this time).

Cryogenic Suspension For Humans In Two Years
   Heinlein's cold rest gets closer and closer - human trials soon.

RIDC-01 Robot Maid Will Not Replace Rosie In Our Hearts
   This robot maid is, unfortunately, not yet commercially available, but it actually exists, unlike Rosie from the Jetson's.

Romi Robot Orwellian Vacuum Cleaner
   Diminutive vacuum cleaner - is really a spybot.

Tondon Robot Autonomous Floor Cleaner
   Zippy Balinese-style autonomous cleaning bot.

Twendy-One Robot Is Your Humanoid Helper
   Twendy-One is the kind of robot that might be taking care of you (or your father or grandfather) in a few years - in Japan.

REEM-B Robot Autonomous Helper Video
   This is one smooth robot; take a look and see if perhaps REEM-B has a place in your home.

Electrolocation Robotic Hand Has PreTouch
   It's amazing how ignoring the human paradigm for vision-based control can succeed - this is how sharks would make robotic hands.

ReadyBot Robot Picks Up Like Heinlein 'Hired Girl'
   This robot has a key ability that I noted was lacking in commercial vacuuming robots.

SmartPal V Robot Picks Up, Vacuums Rec Room
   SmartPal V gets better; this robot is shaping up into a great general purpose robot.

Care-O-Bot Robot Does Chores One-Handed
   This robot has only one arm, but it's a pretty good one, according to the specs.

Toyota Robot Maid Learns From Mistakes
   Great-looking robot maid from Toyota and Tokyo University researchers goes slow, but learns to avoid mistakes and memorizes good strategies.

SkyBot High-Rise Window Cleaning Robot
   SkyBot is a rigorously tested solution for a problem that kills 70 workers in the U.S. alone - high-rise window washing.

Winboni Window-Washing Robot
   Very neat little robot is a real winner - of a prestigious award for students. Check the video.

Basil Reification Robot
   A general purpose household robot should be able to easily identify household items like chairs - but until now, they couldn't do it very well.

Obrero Robot Has The Soft Touch
   It would be a pleasure to shake hands with this robot, which uses sensitive manipulation to gauge just the right gripping force.

Dish Washing Robot Arm
   Watch this video of a one-armed dish bandit! Only a prototype, but I still think that Heinlein was on to something when he wondered about dishwashing robots.

Toyota Delivery Robot Home Helper
   This one-armed prototype could be pretty handy around the house, especially if you're laid up.

iRobot's Five Million Home Robots
   If you've been looking for a nice round number to express the penetration of robots into the consumer market, this is a nice round number.

Mahru-Z Robot Maid
   Roomba is great, but it won't pick up after me. This robot can do it!

PIRO Window Washing Robot
   Nicely implemented window washing robot perfect for those vertical surfaces.

DLR Robotic Hand-Arm Is Super-Strong, Super-Tough
   Take a look at a video of this robotic hand/arm system taking a beating from well-meaning researchers at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics in Germany.

Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive
   And the half-life of radium's most common isotope is 1,601 years.

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