
Ori – Robotic transformation of interior spaces - jchoong
http://orisystems.com/#welcome-home
======
david-given
From Andrew Plotkin's _Left Foot Living_ , an arts review pamphlet set in the
future:

\---snip---

Blind Spot Storage Solutions are selling a space management tool which is --
well, certainly the most efficient we've ever heard of. It's based on the
"subliminal" solutions, which create an illusionary ceiling a few inches below
your real one, leaving several cubic meters of space for additional storage.
But Blind Spot goes far beyond that.

You tag all your possessions; and then the tool simply keeps them out of
sight. Everywhere out of sight. Walk out of a room, and it will be immediately
and silently packed with books, boxes, chotchkes, and whatever else you've
tagged as "in storage". Go down the hall; just before you pass each doorway,
the room beyond it will be siphoned free of detritus -- which will be packed
elsewhere, leaving the room just as you expect it.

The ceiling space is used for both storage and transport. Objects are whisked
up into the ceiling, yanked around your living space, pulled down into
efficient pile-ups. Protective fields ward everything against friction,
acceleration, impact. More fields pump air around and baffle currents,
preventing the explosive winds and supersonic lashings that would otherwise
occur.

You never see any of this. If you stand in the center of a room and turn
around slowly, a tide of bric-a-brac is crawling behind you -- just beyond
your peripheral vision, and from the walls to an inch from your back. Whip
your head around, and it's gone. Moved. Just out of sight.

The catch is reflections, of course. And shadows. Blind Spot strongly
recommends that you tag mirrors, and anything polished. Also light sources.
The tool can fake in reflections and light beams, if it knows to. If it
doesn't, you'd better have nerves of steel.

Not even slightly compatible with owning pets.

\---snip---

[http://www.eblong.com/zarf/review/review-37.html](http://www.eblong.com/zarf/review/review-37.html).
No date, alas, but posted years ago.

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renku
"robotic" part seems to be pure clickbait. From robotic you would expect
something that would act autonomously. This one doesn't even seem to be
automatic - requiring one to push a button or use some app to control it at
the distance.

Then again, that latter part looks scary - can somebody push the button in app
to close the bed while you're sleeping? Hopefully there are some sensors to
detect whether it's safe to perform the moving.

...in case there are such sensors, it might actually be properly robotic.
Unfortunately no information about safety of this all is not given.

~~~
bemmu
I'm guessing it is simply too weak to be able to move if someone is on it.

~~~
michaelmior
I hope not. I could easily imagine wanting to store things summing to more
than my own weight in there given the amount of space available.

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m82labs
As someone that lives in the Southern US, all I can think about is the number
of spiders that would live in the cubby the bed slides into.

~~~
yoklov
And just like that, all interest I had in this product vanished.

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joezydeco
"Sorry, I can't come into the office today, my bedroom crashed and all my
clothes are stuck inside it."

I remember seeing some prior art somewhere. Oh yeah, found it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io5_CBPjJ6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io5_CBPjJ6M)

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svantana
I like the idea, but I get wary at the thought of getting home at 3 AM
(perhaps with company) and finding out that the bed extruding mechanism has
failed... It seems the robotic part is a bit overkill, couldn't it just as
well be mechanical/manual?

~~~
pYQAJ6Zm
“And remember, always leave the bed out before going to a party. ;-)”

~~~
digi_owl
Now to make it truly robotic. Hook it up to calendar etc, and have it figure
out that if you go out after business hours and/or weekend, it should
automatically ready the bed.

Only step up then is virtual butler mode, where you can text ahead about
bringing guest(s) or similar.

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wscott
That was a really confusing website to me. Lots of pictures and none that
really explained what it did. The main important piece is the video in the
middle, but that don't look like a video unless you pass your mouse over it.
And with a slow network connection, it didn't happen to be animated as I
scrolled by so I didn't notice it until the second pass.

It appears to require a hard floor and I wonder if it would make grooves in
the floor after a while.

~~~
AlbertoGP
Thanks for the warning! For others in the same situation, the direct link to
the diagrammatic rendering video which best shows how it works is:

[https://player.vimeo.com/video/174233048/?autoplay=1&loop=1&...](https://player.vimeo.com/video/174233048/?autoplay=1&loop=1&automute=0&api=1)

It's just a piece of forniture that moves side-to-side with electric motors
when you push the switches.

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prodmerc
Yeah, remove the motorized part and it's a nice idea. I like multipurpose
furniture and rooms. But the maintenance overhead is too much, unless you
really, really need to save those 1-3 minutes on switching from bedroom to
office...

~~~
cyberferret
Agreed - I've seen other demo videos of similar furniture that can be
converted by just one person - a smaller build female person to boot. IMO
engineering something with clever cantilevers so that pre teen kids etc. can
manipulate them is far preferable to an electronic motor having to do it.

(PS: Don't know if it is just my boarding house training from 30 years ago
kicking in, but I was horrified to see the girl in the video didn't make the
bed before the hid it underneath the main structure!) :)

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Animats
This concept is often used to expand storage space, where the storage shelves
slide sideways. While there are electrically powered systems for long aisles,
here's a much simpler system from Uline.[1]

If you wanted to build something like Ori, minus the "robotic" part, you could
just order the track and rollers from Uline, and build cabinetry out of Ikea
parts atop a Uline base.

Business opportunity: write an app to design such things, visualize them, and
order the parts. Like Autodesk Kitchen Designer, which does kitchen cabinet
planning.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moumo_m5G_8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moumo_m5G_8)

~~~
Animats
A minimum viable product in this space would be a home office. With the unit
in the open position, there's a home office with shelves and cabinets on both
sides. Roll it into the closed position, and there's a living room with a deep
shelving unit.

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bane
So it's basically this guy's transforming Hong Kong apartment.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co)

~~~
Animats
That guy is really good. It's simple and very well done.

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gbuk2013
An extreme version of this is the amazing "transformer" flat design by a Hong
Kong architect:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm-GpEis5uc](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm-
GpEis5uc)

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archseer
Design seems similar to
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYV0qATsyts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYV0qATsyts)

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tshadwell
Really cool product presented beautifully. But perhaps from being a security
engineer, I wish it would say anything at all about how they're going to
ensure a 16 year old kid can't pwn me from the internet and crush things --
here's praying it can't crush people.

I've just started getting into the whole smarthome thing, it worries me how
hard it is to get information about security characteristics or even standards
enforcement for these (which appear to be mostly non-existent).

I wish the public were more inclined to ask the question of 'but how is it
secured?' when examining something to be placed in their home.

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fareesh
Hallowed are the Ori

~~~
markild
I feel guilty saying I was looking for this...

~~~
sgt
I was about to say it. Expected a massive down-vote though.

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ChuckMcM
Not a particularly new concept, a variation on murphy beds. And as others have
pointed out the 'robotic' title is not really appropriate. I am curious though
if people find the design ethos in the furniture appealing. While I like the
practical and cost effective nature of IKEA type simple design I don't find it
particularly aesthetically appealing.

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pmarreck
> Guided by the principal

It's "principle" in this case.

[http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/english-
mistakes/p...](http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/english-
mistakes/principal-vs-principle/)

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tankenmate
Hmm page doesn't show anything apart from the footer and header for me on
Firefox nightly...

~~~
CDokolas
same on FF 47 :(

~~~
CDokolas
Found it! The "HTTPS Everywhere" add-on causes this (may have something to do
with CORS as well).

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tomp
Putting small motors into furniture now counts as "robotic"? Are we in a new
bubble?!

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nemik
What keeps it from crushing you while you sleep?

~~~
bhickey
Or smooshing you into the wall? Or just pinching your hand when you bend over
to get something that fell under the bed?

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JabavuAdams
Apropos, as I just sold my house and am moving into a 1BR apartment. My plan
was to slowly encase myself in machinery and assistants and diffuse outwards.

I have this semi-related vision of mobile furniture locomoting from one
apartment to the next, during a move, like something out of Fantasia.

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pmlnr
I guess when bioengineering finally(?) takes off, we'll eventually end up with
[http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Chairdogs](http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Chairdogs)

~~~
prodmerc
> except without needing electricity or computerization.

And what would it run on? power of imagination? heh

~~~
imtringued
dog food and water

~~~
prodmerc
exactly... it would shit! :D

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throwanem
Oh, good. I didn't have enough maintenance problems to worry about already.

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banach
Nice, a modern Cabanon ([http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/le-corbusiers-
cabanon/](http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/le-corbusiers-cabanon/)).

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jbmorgado
It seems a step in the right direction, but I would really like to see a
solution for the kitchen embedded in it... I can't imagine myself going out to
eat everyday.

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yawaramin
So, like a fancy version of a Murphy bed?

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transfire
The tyranny of space.

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codecamper
particle board ftw!

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vonklaus
price not listed.

