<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/embodied-is-actually-trying-to-release-moxie-robots-to-the-open-source-community/>
"A couple of weeks back, we discussed the implosion of startup company Embodied
and the resulting bricking of its $800 “emotional support” robots designed for
children. Like many other stories about IoT-type products, the post focused on
how these robots would cease functioning as designed once the backend support
infrastructure for the shuttered business was shut down. As often happens with
stories like this, there were several comments pointing out that the company
could publish its source code and allow an open source community to pick up the
slack here, so that at least these robots wouldn’t become $800 paperweights.
But what doesn’t typically happen in these stories is seeing a company actually
make the effort to do exactly that. But that seems to be what Embodied is
planning, with the company announcing an update and a plan to all the open
source community to build its own backend software for the devices.
Embodied CEO Paolo Pirjanian shared a document via a LinkedIn blog post
today saying that people who used to be part of Embodied’s technical team
are developing a “potential” and open source way to keep Moxies running. The
document reads:
“This initiative involves developing a local server application
(‘OpenMoxie’) that you can run on your own computer. Once available, this
community-driven option will enable you (or technically inclined
individuals) to maintain Moxie’s basic functionality, develop new features,
and modify her capabilities to better suit your needs—without reliance on
Embodied’s cloud servers.”
The notice says that after releasing OpenMoxie, Embodied plans to release
“all necessary code and documentation” for developers and users.
The company is also pushing a final update to the devices that will allow them
to support the OpenMoxie setup."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
