每日跟讀#563: Take a Load Off. The Robots That Fold Laundry Are Coming

Cars can now drive themselves. Cellphones talk to us. How long will it be until the dreams of every college student and overworked parent come true — and laundry can fold itself?

At least two companies are promising to bring laundry-folding robots for the home to market by the end of 2017. Known as Laundroid and FoldiMate, both machines work by analyzing each garment they take in, figuring out its ideal folding shape and delivering a drawer-ready stack of smoothly folded clothes.

汽車現在會自駕。手機可以對我們說話。每個大學生和過勞父母的美夢─洗淨的衣物會自動摺疊，何時才能成真？

至少有兩家公司承諾在2017年年底前讓家用型洗衣摺疊機器人問世。這兩項名為Laundroid和FoldiMate的機器，運作的方式都是分析它們收進來的每件衣服，找出理想的摺疊形狀，再送出一疊摺疊平整，可放進抽屜的衣服。

Laundroid is slightly smaller than a typical refrigerator and looks like the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” except with drawers. The robot arms are inside.

The FoldiMate, more compact, has large clips dangling outside, making it look like a mashup of a clothesline and a plastic oven.

A working prototype of Laundroid — backed by about $90 million in investment capital, including funds from George Roberts and Henry Kravis of the buyout firm KKR — is set to be publicly demonstrated at the end of this month in Tokyo. It will retail — only in Japan, at first — for about $16,000. Seven Dreamers, the company introducing Laundroid, aims to bring the cost down to $2,000 a unit and begin international sales by next year.

Laundroid比典型的冰箱略小，外表類似電影《2001：太空漫遊》中那個巨型碑石，除了它多出數個抽屜。機器手臂藏在裡面。

FoldiMate更小些，有大夾子掛在外面，使它看起來像一個晾衣繩和塑膠烤箱的混合物。

Laundroid的一個工作原型機，預計本月底在東京公開展示，初期，將只在日本零售，每台訂價約1萬6千美元。

Laundroid約有9000萬美元投資資金撐腰，包括來自美國買斷公司KKR的喬治．羅伯茲和亨利．克拉維斯的資金。推出Laundroid的公司「七個夢想家」的目標是將成本降至每台2000美元，預計明年展開國際銷售。

Judging from the intensity of the entrepreneurship going on in the field of laundry, most people would rather watch a video of Marie Kondo, author of the book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,”folding a T-shirt so well it stands on its own than to actually do it with their own hands.

There’s the iBasket, a laundry hamper that automatically washes clothes when full; EcoWasher, promising “detergent-free laundry”; and DashLocker, an app-based urban laundry service.

從洗衣界正在發生的創業強度觀察，大多數人寧可只觀賞近藤麻里繪的影片，她也是《怦然心動的人生整理魔法》一書作者，也不願以自己的雙手實際實踐一下。她把Ｔ恤折疊得太好，好到讓人覺得事不關己地步。

還有iBasket這項產品，它是個洗衣籃，衣物滿時會自動洗衣；EcoWasher則保證讓你「零洗衣精洗衣」；DashLocker是以應用程式為基礎的城市洗衣服務。

The Whirlpool Corp., owner of the Maytag brand, is also aggressively tinkering. The company plans to introduce in January an all-in-one $1,700 washer/dryer hybrid featuring a detergent reservoir that decides on the proper portion per load, squirts it into the basin unassisted and wirelessly reorders from Amazon when empty.

“There is a high level of excitement around innovating in laundry,” said Danielle Whah, Whirlpool’s North America product director for laundry.

擁有「美泰克」品牌洗衣機的惠而浦公司也在積極改進中。該公司計畫明年1月推出一款訂價1700美元，一體化的的洗衣／烘乾混合機，特點是具有一個會自動決定每次洗衣適當用量的洗衣精槽，將洗衣精射入洗衣槽，洗衣精用罄時還會以無線方式向亞馬遜叫貨。

惠而浦洗衣部門北美產品主管丹尼艾爾．華說：「一股濃濃的興奮感正圍繞著洗衣的創新。」

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/314016/web/