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Robotic Teleconferencing
Mike Elgan writes "Hewlett-Packard Labs unveiled to the press May 23 a system for
teleconferencing with lifelike realism.Called the BiReality remote communication system, the project involves a remote-controlled robot on one end, and a total-immersion environment on the other, giving the user the ability to roam hallways, hold conversations and interact remotely through the
robot."
This prototype will crash even faster than the previous prototype! It crashes very fast!
Which brings up another point. What if the robot is moving when Windows crashes? Will it STOP, or just display a STOP error while it keeps on rolling right into somebody?
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
I donno - how long are the cables (visible in the pic)? Of course, being only the second version, with "off the shelf" parts, it looks pretty interesting.
..total-immersion environment on the other, giving the user the ability to roam hallways, hold conversations and interact remotely through the robot. Am I the only one who is thinking Doom??
This way I'll still be able to kick the other person in the groin even with teleconferencing.. This rulez
And install them at the offices of His Billness, His Baldness, Rosen, Boies, etc. Only then will our computing experince become trustworthy.
.. is made with..two very fast Windows PCs, four cameras, a series of directional microphones and speakers. "
One worry though:
"the BiReality system
I can't locate even 1 Very Fast Windows PC yet. I'd need 4 dozens here. Anyone seen such a PC yet? Windows95 on a P4 2.4GHz maybe?
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
... of that spiderlike mobile holoprojector used by Darth Sideous in The Phantom Menace?
Fuzzy Knights: New RPG Strips Tuesday and Friday!:
http://www.fuzzyknights.com
...a remote-controlled robot be build so you can "walk it" to the shop behind the corner, get your kid back home from school, go to work... Will two people never seeing each other send their robots to marry each other remotely? And then go to honeymoon, to Niagara Falls, to watch the views on monitors from home... Will a day come when leaving your house will be scarce and you'll be doing everything by controlling your robot? I don't really like this vision of future.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
IT folks are often looked down in many companies due to the nature of computers breaking down and being "difficult" to use. Reducing the number of bussines trips seems like it is a way to make a few more enemies in the world.
Beedee beedee.......
This, I think it might be the killer application of home robotics.
that half of these posts will concentrate on what OS those robots will be running instead of the applications and pure coolness of the robots.
To get HP some digital ink. Yesterday it was iron speed...day before that it was layoffs...last week it was how the 'merger' was complete (tell that to their distribution hubs)....week before that it was..well, you get the point.
Must be a shareholder's meeting coming up. Otherwise, this armless overgrown lego with screens could be something from the '70s.
The picture creeps me out, because it reminds me very much of the oldest of the old, dilapidated robots at the "flesh fair" in Kubrick/Spielberg's "A.I." So this robot's ancestors will end up there... *shudder*
Cantankerous old coot since 1957.
If this is ready for early adopter markets now, the timing is excellent: due to SARS, real presence in some parts of the world has become risky, which makes telepresence more attractive despite the initial cost of such a system.
or is it just me....
...once the technology is refined and reliable:
Break into a car, put the robot at the wheel, made up as realistically as possible to resemble a human, flip the bird at the highway patrol, and hey, it's the ultimate real life police chase, except for the part at the end where the driver usually gets hauled off in handcuffs.
Especially good if your control feed is being repeated from a number of different locations and randomly phase-shifted, so as to throw off triangulation.
Real-life GTA, anyone?
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
Danger, Danger.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
THIS IS NOT A ROBOT
THIS IS NOT A ROBOT
THIS IS NOT A ROBOT.
WTF's wrong with these marketing people today????
A Robot is something like Bender, who drinks beer and loots things. A box with a recorded message "hello - I'm about to move", is not a robot. A computer program with pseudo AI (not even AI, just hardcoded arrays of messages), is not a robot.
a remote-controlled robot on one end,
I already teleconference with my boss.
The coolest voice ever.
...of the remotes described in Stanislaw Lem's Peace on Earth.
The beginnings thereof, at least.
I can't locate even 1 Very Fast Windows PC yet. I'd need 4 dozens here. Anyone seen such a PC yet?
. asp
http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_perf_results
The coolest voice ever.
At last, I can attend meetings while having another important session on the toilet. But maybe I'll wait for the enhanced model with rotating razor blades. Then, I can show my colleagues what I really think of their work. And the best part is: I can blame it on Windows (those damn Internet Explorer vulnerabilities can be VERY dangerous, you know).
Me and my dirty mind. I think HP, given the function and description of this project, should rename it to something other than "BiReality", unless they are pursuing a client base of alternative lifestyle teleconferencers.
Losers choose to abuse the use of "loose".
Concidering that half the dot com era's IT budget was spent on projectors and laser pens. I'm looking forward to see all the practical purposes of this ingenious machine. Is it possible to put it on hold or get it to bring coffe.
What if the person on the other end does something clumsy, boy does that sound expensive!
Is it at least possible to recycle it?
I know we're all on slashdot, and thus are geeks, but is it really necessary for the rest of the world to understand an article by saying "Through some technical video magic, the background of the robot, not the user, is displayed behind the user's head on the robot screens" instead of "The background of the robot's head is the background of the person in the robot's room, considering the background of the robot is displayed 360 degreese around the victims head?"
I mean, come on! How stupid is the rest of the world?!?
If the victim's head on the robot is shown in the direction the victim's head is facing, unless the room that he/she's in is not showing the image in a life-size (which it is, considering this is total emersion, not 20%-height-leave-room-for-doors-etc emersion) then of course the background will be displayed - and likely blurred from capturing the captured video, but that's not the point.
Vehicle Stars used car search is my current project
I wonder if they said it this way because they actually were hiding that the only way they're fast, is that it'll configure itself and sacrifice performance?
e Networkin g*cough*
What do you think? They're very fast performing Windows PCs, or very fastly assembled? Having worked in HP tech support, I'd say let's go for the latter.
*cough*OEMupTheAss*cough*especiallyInHom
Vehicle Stars used car search is my current project
What with SARS and everything the Doctors from here couldn't get to Singapore. With this thing you don't need to send them there to learn....... get the SG concern to buy the BiReality and hello, Liver Transplanting 101.
If I had access to this robot the _very first_ thing that I would do is make it kick out the jams and dance "the robot".
I had to RTFA. I was confused. I thought this had to do something with sending movies to Tom Servo and Crow.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
This technology should be integrated with Teledildonic(TM) remote-lovin' equipment. WTF is Teledildonics? The digitized motions and frictions of all your favorite positions pipelined to your husband and wife, via sensitive, wearable fun-suits! If they only had a knob for...
I'll still be able to kick the other person in the groin even with teleconferencing.
Even with? Dude, what sort of meetings does your company have?
The coolest voice ever.
"I'm sorry I can't be here, but if you look to your left, you can see a big blue cube with a TV on it..."
Why do it in reality when you can do it in VR? Personally, I'd prefer to have video conferencing in a modified version of counterstrike or planetside; if they piss me off they get shot, etc etc. Or if it's an actual conference with people attending and 1 or 2 people attending virtually, give them a big screen and some software to let them control it, and you're set.
Although, you just know that the first one that's going to happen you're going to have one robot going and toppling the other ones over while the other ones attempt to whirr away at slow speed, only to be kicked by frightened workers who think the robot has eaten their boss or someone is going through the building planning a terrorist bombing. Afterall, you could probably put a face of bin-ladeon in their...
Candy-Coated Knowledge
that makes me feel better. So the only intelligent life left would be the Robots, laywers and M$FT employees. That sounds like more fun then giving Badgers bellyrubs.
I sure hope I get to watch from where I end up (I hope they have aspirin for my neck, having to look up at the show and all).
Well...besides the obvious comments about the OS crashing...and the robot possibly rolling into/over someone :P :P
;^)
:)
:)
(Obviously it would come to an immediate halt, but then again...it IS powered by an eeevil micro$oft product...so instead...it could go on a rampage, destroy buildings, search out it's maker, become part of the global computer defense network, go mad, develop an obsession with pinnochio, build an army of invincible shiny cyborgs, travel back in time, enslave humans and use them as power-sources...eh...nevermind
Eh...anyway...I was going to say that that wobot in the pictures looks a bit unstable to me...kinda top heavy and suffering from middle-age bloat (spare me the windoze jokes!
Nevermind crashing the OS, what if that (expensive?) machine keels over?
Hmmmm...to properly test this...we need to place one small child and/or one happy dog in the vicinity of this robot. Stand back and make sure you're wearing a helmet (and probably steel-capped boots - mind your toeses folks
Which reminds me:
A couple of years ago I watched some video footage on "America's funniest home-videos" (or some clone of that god awful program) where a remote controlled (friendly looking) robot entered a room where a whole bunch of kids where playing with toys. Obviously there was a hidden camera filming the whole thing. The producers thought it would be funny to have the kids talk to/interact with their crappy robot.
The robot was about the same size and shape as the one in the article, but instead of blue, it was completely red with a 'traditional' square robot head. (square eyes, mouth, antennas, the works
Now here's the important bit:
Much to the producers surprise (and delight) the children, upon seeing the robot enter the room, all started screaming and crying, and proceeded to assault the robot and pelt it with their toys!
Now imagine your kids at home, playing with their toys...and in comes Wobby the wobot - with DADDY's HEAD! "Hel-lo chil-dren!" Aaaugh!
Years of therapy...
I guess it would be a Remote Control Telepresence Device, or a ReCTeD (pronounced wrecked).
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
I wish i had one, so I could use it to get my diploma - sorry - diploma folder, from graduation. Then I could still be sleeping. Or drinking ;)
/* Lobster Stick To Magnet!*/
Now Spammers can deliver their message to you in person. (without fear of personal reprisal). Not to mention to opportunity to sell more slick advertising space on the "robots" exterior.
Our course I would reserve some space for my bumper sticker.
My Robot can Kick Your Robot's A$$
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
They should send one of these to Mars instead of those silly tumbleweed things!
Yea sure the lag would be horrible, but just get someone from efnet to operate it.
"It's just strange Johnson, one minute we were discussing the quarterly financials, and the next thing you know, he starts breakdancing and shouting 'You've been 0wned'".
to teleconference with me. Or just to annoy me and run into my office chair repeatedly. Note that the bathroom is also a popular destination.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
Thats not a robot, the term is "waldo" .. the equivalent of "robotic arms" controlled from a joystick... just with a lot more feedback.
meh
Too bad the people I currently teleconference with don't look as good as the woman pictured in the article.
How is this a vast improvement over video teleconferencing? You are still just looking at a picture of the person who's not there. So it can move around the room -- you're still not getting the true "presence" of a person in the room.
....Bethanie....
Cool techno-gadgetry aside, I just don't see companies jumping on this thing. They're gonna stick with the cheap stuff already available, and when it's really important, they'll break down and buy a plane ticket.
Boring, but true.
In what SciFi I read, such "robot" would be called the other person's "avatar". Mind you, there is no need for the other person. An avatar can represent a computer or some other (semi-)sentient being...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
This could do wonders for these types of people.
Exactly this sort of telepresence robot was used to interesting effect in the novel "Einstein's Bridge", by John Cramer. There's an interesting battle between an evil-doer and a protagonist-controlled telepresence robot. When one robot is destroyed, the hero just activates another one, which makes for an interesting dynamic.
It's a little off-topic, but I have to recommend this book, just for the circumstances under which it was written. It was supposed to be about some odd effects of the Superconducting Super Collider, but the SSC project was axed before John could finish the book, throwing all his near-term sci-fi predictions out the window. He managed to finish the book anyway, throwing a really fun twist into the end to make everything consistent. One of the more amusing hard sci-fi reads I've come across in a long time.
Those aren't just garden-variety PCs. The comparison chart Faust7 is referencing is a high-end server chart.
However: is this a MS cheerleader site? Because I don't see anything running any sort of Free/Open operating system. Just Windows 2K Datacenter and proprietary Unices.
One wonders what would happen if a few of those high-end IBM Linux on Power4 hardware boxen were allowed to play. Vrooom...
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Mahoromatic. A combat andro-robot becomes sentient, leaves military service, and becomes a maid.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
OK, OK, well, you do lose the immersive VR environment on the client side.... :-)
That your boss would have to be the admin for the server running the teleconferencing. He might end up being the only one with a gun. More importantly, I think that we could look at a new low cost method of tourism, or virtual field trips for schools wealthy enough to get into the equipment to do a whole class (20+ students at one time). "Pay attention class, today we will be going to visit the Pyramids at Giza"
First note that their sentence is shorter than yours. I really don't understand what your sentence is trying to say. Who is the "victim"?
I sense you misunderstood the "technical video magic". What happens is that the user's head is segmented out from the video feed in the "immersion room", then superimposed on top of a video feed of the rear facing camera mounted on the robot. So the background on-screen of the robot matches the room where the robot is present.
In this case, the background will not be blurred, there is some "magic" involved, and people interacting with this robot don't ever see what the interior of the "immersion room" looks like.
Sure, it might make it more "real" to the user, but I for one doubt that most people that will be on the interaction end of the robot won't exactly take to this realism.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Wasn't there an episode where Geordi used one of these to explore hazardous environments?
Now even McD jobs will be taken. Somebody can flip burgers and make change from 4000 miles away.
Heck, if they learn to bullshit like an American manager, that can be done remotely from India and China also.
What AI researchers fail to realize is that brains *are* cheap after all. With 2 billion starving persons on this earth, all we need is a remote proxy to tap into them, not an artificial brain. There is a surplus of real brains.
And, humans are horny bastards, they will make more desparate people. We are good at that.
The future is gonna be weird.
Table-ized A.I.
If you had a bunch of them in a room, then you could "broadcast" to all of them at once and it would be like a bunch of Agent Smiths.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Combine this with Honda's Asimo and one of these and I'm in.
Jeesh, it is a robot. Doesn't anyone remember that 'ROBOT' stands for Remotely Operated Body Of Tin? At least that is where the name came from.
Honestly, where do you think the name came from?
</rant>
I'd say "Excuse me" and wheel the robot off to the bathroom (Does the robot fall under the classification of "Men" or "Women"?) just to be a nice smartass, you'd have to wonder how long it would take them to think about that one.
Alternative meaning - boss uses telepresence to make his trip to Japan. So there is no problem taking off the telepresence head set and having a walk round the office to see what the workers are up to, while he is "in Japan"
I posted a link earlier.