According to my read of the obits, both of the elderly women portrayed here have been dead for over a year. No doubt in their twilight years they were very pleased to assist the Spencers in their CareBot "alpha" trials.
So what do the pictures of these now deceased, beloved elderly family members have to do with GOSY today?
Their willing assistance biased the alpha trials?
I would suggest that their participation improved the quality of the in home trials due to the intimate relationship the Spencers had with these now departed loved ones. Are we all not more motivated to honor and protect our loved ones more than those not well known to us? Isn't that what genuine family values are all about?
GOSY is OBVIOUSLY market driven. Therefore "product development" is NEVER done. Product evaluation and improvement (aka alpha trials) will go on FOREVER. I am very impressed that GOSY is still evolving and improving their product for over 15 years now. GOSY is DEFINITELY market driven! I think GOSY's first benchmark was Arctec's Gemini. That personal robot was very expensive and had insufficient features and benefits to sell well. That is the market research that GOSY has been doing, and will continue to do, FOREVER. Now GOSY's CareBot is sufficient and my read is that they need funds to do manufacturing and marketing rollout. EXCELLENT!
Just like the Wright Brothers used family, friends, and neighbors to build their first manned "flying machines," the Spencers have benefited and employed family, friends, and neighbors for over 15 years to hold development expenses down to a bare minimum. Since the goal in any field testing is to learn what is wrong, BEFORE going into "prime time" sales to endusers, it simply does not matter if family and friends did the first testing. (If anything they are MORE motivated to reveal any warts or shortcomings they find since they wanted the Spencers to succeed!) So all this commotion about biased or unbiased trials is really much ado about nothing. For example, actual clinical trials use placebo's, or medication that does nothing. Now how could any personal robot company have a "placebo?"
