Tech Topics - Winter 2008 - (Page 29)

BURDELL & FRIENDS The Weight Coach Cory Kidd mixes health care and robotics in Autom By Van Jensen T hose looking to lose weight or adopt a healthier lifestyle have no shortage of diets, programs, exercises or pills from which to choose. Thanks to Georgia Tech grad Cory Kidd, there’s a promising new aid for shedding pounds: robots. Kidd, CS 00, is the driving force behind the company Intuitive Automata and its signature product, the weight-loss coach Autom. The robot rests on a countertop and actively engages people in counting calories and logging exercise time through an interactive display. “The focus of Intuitive Automata is building sociable robots for long-term behaviorchange applications,” Kidd said. “We see a great opportunity both in helping people who are trying to lose weight and in developing a market for our products in Autom. We are exploring a number of other applications that take advantage of our technology and will move into these once we have launched Autom.” The company is still in the early stages, and the commercial version of the robot is planned for release within the next two years. Last year, Kidd used 17 Autom prototypes to test the system. “The study showed that Autom is effective at helping people stick with their diets, and therefore they’re much more likely to successfully lose weight and keep it off,” Kidd said. Kidd started in the field of robotics while an undergraduate at Tech doing independent study on the practical aspects of robots, and he later worked on the Aware Home project as an undergraduate researcher and then as a research scientist. His goal, he said, is to take the advancements in robotics and use them to benefit people’s lives. He made strides in that area while doing graduate studies at the MIT Media Lab, where the prototype for Autom was developed. “To me, it’s a great way to take cutting-edge work in inventing and creating new things and finding applications that are genuinely useful to people,” he said. “After my early findings on the differences “It’s a great way to take cutting-edge work in inventing and creating new things and finding applications that are genuinely useful to people.” between interacting with a robot versus with a computer application, I focused on applications where these would be useful and started looking at behaviorchange issues. “Weight loss is a much-researched example and one that could clearly benefit many people in the United States and around the world, so I began to research it in more detail and developed Autom.” The effort of turning Autom into a marketable product has led Kidd across the world to the new home for Intuitive Automata in Hong Kong. The company also employs Bill McCord, CS 00, and Kidd’s wife, Erica Young, ID 01. The company plans to open a sales and marketing office in the United States, but it will be manufacturing Autom in south China. Kidd said costs there are much lower than in the United States and skilled hardware and software engineers and product designers are more readily available in China. Beyond that, the government in Hong Kong has helped support the company through an incubation program at Hong Kong Science Park and a grant for small entrepreneurial companies, Kidd said. “I find Hong Kong to be a great place to do business,” Kidd said. “There is a lot going on in Hong Kong itself in industry and academia, and there are even more people passing through as a gateway to China. This part of the world will only grow in importance in the coming decades, and there is no better way to learn about and understand it than basing my company here and gaining that knowledge and experience firsthand.” Looking forward, Kidd sees Autom as a step forward in the shift of robots largely being designed for toys toward being created for more useful interactive purposes. “I think Autom can help to usher in a new type of product, one that understands and takes advantage of many of the aspects of social interaction,” Kidd said. “With Autom, we have the opportunity to help people who are trying to make a long-term change toward living a healthier lifestyle. “It will be some time before we have Rosie from ‘The Jetsons,’ but we will continue to see robots become more interactive, intelligent and helpful in the coming years.” TechTopics | Winter 2008 29

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Tech Topics - Winter 2008 Contents Letters Buzz Around Town Alumni House Rockin’ Good Time State of the Institute The Hill Presidential Search Going Airborne Student Life An Architect’s Eyes Weight Coach Robot Burdell & Friends Ramblin’ Roll Rural Readers Leading Ladies Yellow Jackets Beyond His Years Leading Change Real World

Tech Topics - Winter 2008

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