Domestic Robotics - Leave it to Roll-Oh, our Fun loving Retrobot

2014-07-02 00:00:00

Tongue-in-cheek film showing a domestic robot freeing "housewives" of their chores (and intimating that their work is hardly necessary); actually a promo showing how relays and switches function in the modern automobile.




This promotional spot from Chevrolet was shown at the 1940 World's Fair in New York and uses Roll-Oh the Robot as a metaphor for all of the things that technology does for people in their everyday lives.

This includes the technology in a Chevrolet automobile of course.

The Robuts Are Everywhere (Video)

Most of us like to think that we are familiar with robots, some of us may actually have a robot toy or two (or more) or have a Roomba doing our floors while we're out enjoying life. But, even with all of our experience and knowledge of robotics, can we even begin to guess what robots will be like a couple of generations from now?

==The Future Belongs To "Roll-Oh", The Robot

Of course, we would all like to speculate - to offer our own educated opinions of what the robot world of the future will look like. But, before we jump to conclusions, it might be useful to go back and reflect on what our parents and grandparents thought the future (the future we're living right now) had in store for us.

Here we have the opportunity to go back and view historical material - text, audio, movies/videos, and other media - from the not too distant past. The "Leave It To Roll-Oh" film (see link below) that was shown at the New York World's Fair in 1940.

Since the film was obviously funded by the automotive industry, so there are lots of understandable references to automotive 'robot' applications. Still, it provides a very good understanding of what the popular image of a robot was in the middle of the last century, and how they thought it would evolve. The film, which runs just under 9 minutes, is worth viewing just for the techno-jargon or in the first few scenes when the technician is explaining things to the stereotypical housewife.

So - why "robuts"? Simply because that's the way that the film narrator says it. . . .

Tongue-in-cheek film showing a domestic robot freeing "housewives" of their chores (and intimating that their work is hardly necessary); actually a promo showing how relays and switches function in the modern automobile.




This promotional spot from Chevrolet was shown at the 1940 World's Fair in New York and uses Roll-Oh the Robot as a metaphor for all of the things that technology does for people in their everyday lives.

This includes the technology in a Chevrolet automobile of course.

The Robuts Are Everywhere (Video)

Most of us like to think that we are familiar with robots, some of us may actually have a robot toy or two (or more) or have a Roomba doing our floors while we're out enjoying life. But, even with all of our experience and knowledge of robotics, can we even begin to guess what robots will be like a couple of generations from now?

==The Future Belongs To "Roll-Oh", The Robot

Of course, we would all like to speculate - to offer our own educated opinions of what the robot world of the future will look like. But, before we jump to conclusions, it might be useful to go back and reflect on what our parents and grandparents thought the future (the future we're living right now) had in store for us.

Here we have the opportunity to go back and view historical material - text, audio, movies/videos, and other media - from the not too distant past. The "Leave It To Roll-Oh" film (see link below) that was shown at the New York World's Fair in 1940.

Since the film was obviously funded by the automotive industry, so there are lots of understandable references to automotive 'robot' applications. Still, it provides a very good understanding of what the popular image of a robot was in the middle of the last century, and how they thought it would evolve. The film, which runs just under 9 minutes, is worth viewing just for the techno-jargon or in the first few scenes when the technician is explaining things to the stereotypical housewife.

So - why "robuts"? Simply because that's the way that the film narrator says it. . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZDcAuCYQs