When Dave Evans was 12 years old, he fashioned a broom handle into a crude but functional mechanical hand, complete with moving digits and tendons. Today, at 43, he’s still tinkering with robots, albeit with a markedly bigger budget.
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Evans works as chief futurist in network equipment maker Cisco Systems’ consulting group in San Jose, where he helps customers adopt new technology. In his spare time, he’s built Halie, a virtual assistant that helps around the office by pulling files, finding weather reports, and adjusting the thermostat. Evans talks to Halie, who appears as a young woman on a special screen in his office, uttering his commands in everyday language.
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I’m obsessed with this intersection between humans and machines, says Evans, who estimates he’s spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money building robots over the past 30 years. While he’s a Cisco employee, Evans’ robots are his own creations and, for now, he hasn’t developed a robot for Cisco or its customers.
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In addition to Halie, Evans also builds physical robots in his home that check e-mail, control lights, and watch for intruders. The hobby is so time-consuming that Evans equates it with a second full-time job. You do need friends and family that are tolerant, he says.
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‘Surging Interest in Robotics’
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Evans is part of an inveterate tradition of Silicon Valley tinkerers whose fixation with computers and electronics often exceeds the boundaries of the workday. As many as 80 people attend monthly meetings of the Valley’s HomeBrew Robotics Club, which dates from 1982 (though Evans isn’t a member). About 10 attendees work for robotics companies; the rest are hobbyists, says club president Wayne Gramlich.
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There’s a huge, surging interest in robotics, says Gramlich. In the late ’90s, perhaps a dozen members attended the meetings, he says. Experts say there’s been a groundswell…