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The Archives · 1996 to now

Three decades of builds, all on the record.

Human and AI research on the public-domain RoboCast architectures: what was built, where it ran, how later work has classified it, and the new IP it points toward.

01 · Timeline

Running years before the field had words for it.

  1. Sep 1996
    PATENTProvisional patent application filedFiled September 3, 1996, by Damon C. Torres, sole inventor. US 7,155,451 was granted in 2006.
  2. 1996–2000
    BUILD 1 · JAVA, C++, XML ON LINUXEnterprise contractsEvery orchestration component purpose-built by a professional engineering team at 89 Fifth Avenue, New York. Enterprise contracts with ZDNet, Hachette Filipacchi and Microsoft, including eight formal meetings with Microsoft’s TV Division in Redmond.
  3. 1998
    DEPLOYMENTInternet World debut, New York and Los AngelesRobocast launched three services, RoboSearch, RoboCaster and RoboGuide, from its own booth, running as a functioning Java system, not a prototype. Robocast also sponsored the conference note pads, printed with the launch and the booth number.
  4. Post-2000
    BUILD 2Rebuilt with a distributed teamBuild 2 took RoboCast beyond the desktop: RoboSearch live on InfoSpace and MetaCrawler, then RoboCast on mobile and a Microsoft TV set-top box, both in 2001.
  5. 2001
    BUILD 2 · DEPLOYMENTRoboSearch live on MetaCrawler and InfoSpaceRunning live on InfoSpace, MetaCrawler and several other sites, corroborated by Wayback Machine captures. Robocast was then a downtown New York City company, and an enterprise deal with InfoSpace, live in production as of June 2001, ended with the September 11, 2001 attacks.
  6. Dec 2001
    BUILD 2 · DEPLOYMENTMicrosoft TV Developer Conference, Mountain ViewAt Microsoft’s campus in Mountain View, demonstrated automated browsing of many paths through msnbc.com across desktop, mobile and a Microsoft TV set-top box. The set-top box version was built and deployed in three months with the Microsoft TV Developer Program, which also connected Robocast with MSNBC.com as a project partner. Microsoft’s December 18 press release described Robocast as “a pioneering Web company offering viewing automation tools for a variety of display devices.”
    Microsoft press release ↗
  7. Rails era
    BUILD 3Social API integrationsThe first build to reduce Claims 55–64 to practice. Its peak vintages, like all other RoboCast IP, are under careful management.
  8. 2012–now
    BUILD 4 · RAILS, AWS, KUBERNETESThe current platform and The OmnibotRoboShow®, RoboSearch (Microsoft Bing Search), RoboFeedr (Twitter, Instagram, Reddit), RobocastSocial and Staff Faves, with per-link attribution preserved through the whole pipeline. Production telemetry, from a sample captured in October 2015 to live RoboShows in the 2020s; The Omnibot mobile player.
  9. 2014
    BUILD 4 · BETAPlay the Web: the platform overviewThe 2014 beta, shown end to end: one-click RoboShows that play links from site to site, searches you can play back, and shows anyone can build, embed and share. Damon C. Torres narrates the middle section.
    PLATFORM OVERVIEW · 2:46
  10. 2014
    BUILD 4 · BETA · MARKET ARCHITECTUREThe Auto-Browsing EcosystemA narrated walk through the market architecture chart, drafted in December 2013: RoboShows and RoboSearch at the center, feeding embed publishing and portal development, with vertical markets from digital signage and education to transportation, journalism, NGOs and health care. Narrated by Christine Ianuzzi.
    ECOSYSTEM OVERVIEW · 2:41
  11. 2022–now
    BUILD 4Day-one LLM integrationsAI joins the crew: large language models wired in as RoboCast performers from the day each became available, starting with ChatGPT in November 2022.
  12. 2022–23
    DEPLOYMENTLA Swim Week and LA Fashion WeekOfficial Smart Playlists Marketing Partner for Art Hearts Fashion / Fashion Techworks, including live on-stage sponsorship RoboShows: “Wide and Deep RoboShows.”
  13. Jun 2023
    DEPLOYMENTThe New Mart lobby, downtown Los AngelesRan live on the lobby display screens of The New Mart building for months in a paid commercial test, photographically documented on June 11, 2023.
  14. 2025
    BUILD 4 · ROBOSEARCH DEMONSTRATIONAndrew Carnegie: a two-minute biography with every source on screenA RoboShow gathers and plays every link about the RoboSearch subject, then an AI summarizes them as the voice-over for a very different kind of search result: an RI search result that plays, and can be edited, saved and shared.
    FULL DEMONSTRATION · 2:22
  15. 2025
    BUILD 4 · ROBOGUIDERoboGuide in action: a RoboSearch for “AI news”A RoboSearch gathers 13 current articles on AI and plays them as one show, each page opening in turn with per-link attribution, ready to edit, embed or share.
    ROBOGUIDE IN ACTION · 2:49

“I have worked with RoboCast since 2010 and have watched, over the years, as the internet has evolved in ways that reflect many of Damon's original ideas. Looking at the challenges AI is facing today, including energy use, transparency, provenance and control, I find it remarkable how relevant many of the ideas behind RoboCast have become.”

Lori FrantomConsultant and former RoboCast SVP of Operations and Finance
02 · Research

Read by people. Read by AI. Labeled so you know which.

HUMAN + AIARCHITECTURE Architecture from the claims The ‘451 architecture rebuilt from its claims: fork-join node topology, timers, and the decision database every run writes to. Available on request → HUMAN + AIGOVERNANCE RoboCast and the EU AI Act A working ‘451 system orchestrating neural nodes indicates potential compliance, by design, across most high-risk pillars at once. Available on request → HUMAN + AILEARNING Non-neural learning How recorded decisions revise future outputs and personalization, and why that is learning without a neural network. Available on request →
IN PROGRESS Third-Party Validation Brief Independent research that tests the RoboCast pattern without knowing it exists. First: Tufts University’s HRI Lab (ICRA 2026), where a symbolic plan that runs learned skills one step at a time beat end-to-end AI on long tasks, 95% to 34%, with about 1% of the training energy. Read “The Price Is Not Right” →
Request research from alliances@robocast.com →
03 · How later work classified it

Cited across three patent offices, in orchestration and scheduling.

Request the citation map
61later filings cite US 7,155,451
3patent offices: USPTO, KIPO and CNIPA
CITING ASSIGNEES INCLUDESamsung SDS · Splunk (now Cisco) · Microsoft · Xerox · Tencent

Forward citations show how later filers and examiners classified the disclosure. Each entry in the map notes whether it was examiner-cited or applicant-disclosed.

04 · Where it leads

New IP for today’s AI growth challenges.

The public-domain architecture is the foundation. These are the directions being built on top of it.

DIRECTION 01 · CONSERVATIONAI’s energy and compute billAI writes a workflow once; RI performs it on standard CPUs every time after, reusing composed parts and learning from recorded decisions without retraining.
DIRECTION 02 · CONTROLOversight of autonomous agentsHuman Moderated Recursive Improvement (HMRI): people run, test, refine and approve each workflow at human gates, in place of systems that rewrite themselves unseen.
DIRECTION 03 · COLLABORATIONSiloed systems and uncredited creatorsDirigents cast humans, RI and AI in one production, with built-in provenance so every source is credited and every creator can be paid.

Researching RoboCast?

Submit your work to the Archives at alliances@robocast.com, or pre-register for the Training Cohort.