Pittsburgh250— This story is part of a Pittsburgh Media Partnership collaborative reporting project exploring how Southwestern Pennsylvania communities are marking America’s 250th anniversary — and how local history continues to shape civic life today. Technical.ly, City Cast Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh’s Public Source teamed up to explore the region’s economic horizons.
Herbert Televox’s mission: To help with everyday household chores by switching household appliances on or off according to the tune of its user’s voice.
Herbert was considered a state-of-the-art robot when former Westinghouse engineer Roy Wensley filed its patent nearly 100 years ago. A half-century later, Carnegie Mellon University partnered with the same electric company and the U.S. government to found the Robotics Institute. Today, professors train four-legged robots capable of completing search-and-rescue missions in addition to helping humans out at home.
It’s difficult to say what new robotics and artificial intelligence inventions will materialize over the next half-century. But there’s reason to believe that Pittsburgh’s broader tech sector will help transform the city’s built environment and economy: Some of the city’s neighborhoods — including Oakland, Lawrenceville, the Strip and North Shore — have already grown into hubs driven by burgeoning tech startups and universities’ research activities…