Global Interest in Robotics is Fading

After some years of stagnation the search term "robot" has again shown some significant increase during 2010, mainly driven by robotics news such as

• Robot waiters in China never lose patience
• Robot breakdown delays New Zealand mine rescue
• The world's first robot with conscience
• More oil now gushing into Gulf after undersea robot bumps venting system on cap
• Eyes flashing, robot conducts wedding in Tokyo

But in the long run the public interest in robotics and other emerging technologies has decreased. According to Google Trends measuring the search frequency of technology terms the interest in robotics has decreased significantly since 2004. Despite billions of dollar, euro and yen invested in robotics R&D the world’s interest in robotics is fading. The Google Trends graph below shows the negative global trend for robotics and biotech.