There was something about the early 1980s--probably the popularity of the first three Star Wars movies--that made it a particularly potent period for robot pundit pontification. The computer press had an absolute love affair with the idea of personal home robots: Some of the more promising early contenders for robotic slavedom were Heathkit's HERO line, Androbot's BOB, and RB Robotics' RB5X (seen here greeting its new masters). These home robots shared some key features, such as exorbitant price tags and general near-uselessness. Sure, they might have looked like R2-D2, but on the inside they were little more than off-the-shelf microcontrollers on wheels. Amazingly, the RB5X robot pictured here is still for sale in 2007, but we'll still have to wait a while longer before it can toss a lightsaber to someone in need.
Cameras
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Desktops
HDTV
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