Microsoft Robots to Watch Kids

[IKnowNot]

... and who "does not" have a baby monitor?

baby monitors are for infants and come with a whole lot of legal advisories( licenses, legal advisories, what have you ) for monitoring from the next room where walls and doors may interfere.

You guys are missing the obvious.

Yes, I agree almost completely, that is until you read the above mentioned licenses.

Can you can see where I am going with this?

Thus far ( not ruling out generic engineering ) we are not born with the knowledge of our parents. It will take a while ( though shorter as each generation is exposed to newer and more things ) for a child to learn to hack, but it is in their nature! A Child will ALWAYS test their environment. Through their terrible twos, through adolescence, through their teens.

Abuse of these things ( again referring to the blanket license provided with these items to prevent lawsuits ) would be no different then the cell phone or pager. In past years, how many idiotic moronic parents gave their kid a pager so if they wanted to know what the kid was doing and where he/she was they could page them? ( I am not talking about 18 year olds, I’ve seen this with 8 year olds! Now they give them cell phones! )
The *******s should have given the kid their pager number in case there was an emergency, but should ALWAYS have known where their kid was!!!!!!!

Sorry for the rant, but this strikes a nerve. We try to give kids what we did not have, try to provide the best for them, but forget what is important, the child!

The Child needs the parents acceptance and attention! Not just something to watch over them.

[Timmy77]

Shortly following the release of this new Microsoft product we'll see the release of RUS, or, Robot Update Services.

This new service will not only patch your robot to protect against the latest security vulnerabilities, but will keep your robot's language "hip" so your children will never be socially unacceptable.

The robot will also be sold with an optional Flobe hair-cutting attachment. Early beta results of this robot's excellent hair-care abilities explain Mr. Gates' hair.

[Kite]

Early beta results of this robot's excellent hair-care abilities explain Mr. Gates' hair.

Dont you mean sir william's hair?

I really think that when we are so unwilling to take the effort to care for our children that we are willing to leave them in the care of a robot, essentialy a walking talking program that is just as susceptible to runtime errors as a normal one, we seriously need to rethink our values. I understand that the parents want a personal life and belive they shouldnt be robbed of it, but when they commit to making a baby, they should be prepared to care for it.

The only robot i will be purchasing will be one of those Rhombas to clean my house.
(I eagarly await the model that mows the lawn for you, although if M$ makes it, I will wait for the other companies to make knockoffs. *imagines a mower-bot having a runtime error and mangaling a postmans leg*)

[gess~da~devil]

I think kids are gona do this.

--> Switching it off.
--> Taking its inside out....

On being asked by parents what happened..
...
I just wanted to see whats in it

[gothic_type]

Did you guys notice on the same page the bit about the traffic monitoring system that uses realtime and archived data to predict traffic jams. Now that sounds a bit more practical than a scary bear who's head probably rotates 360 degrees and scares your kid sh**less.

ac

[RoadClosed]

A carefully aimed football will render it "hacked".

[Timmy77]

a scary bear who's head probably rotates 360 degrees and scares your kid sh**less

That's it! The new babysitter, Teddy Ruxpin 2.0! I can't tell you how much i've missed that bear. I can also hope it will spawn another wave of those "Child's Play" movies.

[MrCoffee]

Ok, I just scanned this thread quickly, but I have to admit, I have thought about getting some type of "toy/robot" for my kid....
Now before I get jumped on, let me explain. My youngest child is PDD, a form of autism. While he is progressing along, in reality, he is 5 year old, with the devolopmental level of a 2 year old, mentally.
I am often thought about getting a "TV Teddy" stuffed animal to have him take with him places, that video tapes what goes on. I may sound paranoid, but I worry about him when he is at daycare or school. He cant tell us how he got a"boo boo" only that he is hurt. I had heard of something like this someplace, and thought it was a wonderful idea. Especially after a day when my son came home covered in bruises that no one could explain. (An older child hit him for getting in his way). We have had a great deal of trouble finding placement for my son, and we screen several places before we found his current care. The last place had a great reputation, yet twice they forgot to give him his meds, and once they double dosed him (his last day there!).

So, in some cases a Teddy monitor doesnt have to mean an idiot parent who is too busy or self involded to care properly for a child, it can mean a parent that is very concerned about a childs well being. Maybe "Tele Teddy" can help parents with peace of mind while they work.

Yesterday on the new there was a story about a 5 year old not too different from my son, mistakenly left on his special needs school bus for three hours (It was 17 degrees out yesterday). The number of cases of child abuse and abuse of special needs children has risen to the point where parents SHOULD be concern. This might just be a way for technology to provide a safer environment for children. And while the parent with a lack of interest in being a parent may use it to replace properly caring for a child, there are hundreds of parents that will use it as a proper tool for giving BETTER care.

Ok, enough on that, I got real work to do.... but I thought maybe this whole discussion needed a bit of insight into the positive benefits of a "Teddy"

Cheers!

[IKnowNot]

I understand your feelings and frustrations, but I believe we are talking about the rule here, the abuses that people take with technology, and not the exceptions as you might fall into. And there may be better ways then robots.

Some day-care centers use web-cams that a parent ( for an extra fee of course ) can use at any time to watch what goes on in the center. This gives the parents some sense of added comfort and most employees will act very differently knowing they are being watched ( although I've seen some blockheaded people do stupid things anyway ).

How often have you seen on the news that a baby sitter was caught on a hidden camera in a persons home smacking a child around? Although this could very well be used as an easy set-up for such a camera it would not be so hidden ( everyone would know what the robot is ) and they would just move to a different room. I think the issue here is how many people would say “ I am monitoring the child, why do I need a baby sitter?”

And as implied before, what now happens when the parent is away and the child takes the thing apart? I know my kids started in their twos and they took everything apart, especially if it moved. ( the dog fought back and got away! ) The only solution I found was to sit down with them and try to explain in terms they could understand why it is a good idea when taking something apart they should do it in such a way that it can be put back together again or they would no longer have it. ( I encouraged them to wait for me before taking something apart ... I may be able to explain how it works to their satisfaction without breaking it. )

Anyway, back to my point. Not that these things ( I earlier referred to pagers and cell phones ) don't have uses, but that people, for whatever reason ( laziness, stupidity, arrogance, etc. ) abuse these things, and on a large scale.

Go into a large mall. How many 11 year olds are there, without supervision, walking around with cell phones? Check with any large PD, ask them if they ever had to respond to a call from somewhere out-of-state because some 13 year olds were chatting on the computer and one was talking about suicide or harming someone else, they went to the house and found either the child was home alone and/or the parents have no idea what the child does online. Yet they will continue to let the child use the computer unsupervised. And how many cases like this don't get reported?

p.s. As for the school bus incident you mentioned, very very unfortunate. I hope the child was ok. Things like this have happened before, and not just with special needs children. I'm sure the bus driver is wondering why everyone wants them fired for “one” mistake, but they don't understand this is not like forgetting to fuel the bus before they left. I would be taking this example to my local district and asking what they do to prevent such things ( training, monitoring, retraining, etc. ) and asking what policies they have in effect.

[Egaladeist]

I remember seeing or reading about the bus incident...and there was an incident recently where a child with ADS was locked in a Daycare for three hours after closing...but...

on the topic of monitoring...I never used a monitor except after I put my girls to bed...other than that children should have actual supervision...because a monitor does not adequately supervise an active child...even if you baby-proof your home like I did, there's always something that can happen and a monitor will not provide you with the reaction time you need in some situations...in some cases you need to react instantly and you can't do that if you're not there.

Eg