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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.
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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.
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.
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.
...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...
a remote-controlled robot on one end,
I already teleconference with my boss.
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?
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.
Hooorrrrayyyyy No more herpes. Wont that make the world a better place.
"Please proceed to grab your ankles. The anal injection process with proceed in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...... WHOS YOUR DADDY!!!
"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
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...
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
"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'".
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.
OK, OK, well, you do lose the immersive VR environment on the client side.... :-)