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Robotic Teleconferencing

Posted by michael on from the ten-seconds-to-comply dept.

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."

18 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Crashes fast! by IO+ERROR · · Score: 4, Funny
    HP Fellow Norm Jouppi told HP World Magazine that the BiReality system prototype, now in its second version, is made with off-the-shelf parts, including two very fast Windows PCs, four cameras, a series of directional microphones and speakers.


    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?
    1. Re:Crashes fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The robot is a complex system with many contingency plans. In the event of a system crash it would revert to a simple "Kill all humans" routine until the system can be brought back online.

  2. Roaming with stings attached? by pphrdza · · Score: 4, Interesting
    giving the user the ability to roam hallways, hold conversations and interact remotely through the robot.

    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.

  3. doom? by romit_icarus · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..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??

  4. Sounds very handy by SRCR · · Score: 5, Funny

    This way I'll still be able to kick the other person in the groin even with teleconferencing.. This rulez

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  5. I'd like to have a doxen of these... by jkrise · · Score: 4, Funny

    And install them at the offices of His Billness, His Baldness, Rosen, Boies, etc. Only then will our computing experince become trustworthy.

    One worry though:
    "the BiReality system .. is made with..two very fast Windows PCs, four cameras, a series of directional microphones and speakers. "

    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....
  6. Why does this remind me... by Mossfoot · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... of that spiderlike mobile holoprojector used by Darth Sideous in The Phantom Menace?

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    Fuzzy Knights: New RPG Strips Tuesday and Friday!:
    http://www.fuzzyknights.com
  7. Will tomorrow... by SharpFang · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...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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    1. Re:Will tomorrow... by evbergen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course, the next step would be to interlink robots in such a way that if one robot is observed by another, you see an image of the owner instead of the robot.

      At that point, it's only a tiny step away to skip the whole robot and camera business and to interact virtually only.

      Of course, I sincerely hope to be dead before this becomes the only practical way of being in contact with people.

      --
      All generalizations are false, including this one. (Mark Twain)
    2. Re:Will tomorrow... by Bluesman · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, and you just KNOW your girlfriend's robot would look a lot better than the real thing.

      When your robot is dating a "big boned, but attractive" robot, watch out.

      --
      If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
  8. 2 words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Beedee beedee.......

  9. If you combine telepresence robotics with by mikeophile · · Score: 3, Funny

    This, I think it might be the killer application of home robotics.

  10. Just a marketing/press release by djupedal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  11. Nice timing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  12. A Perfect Application... by heretic108 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...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?

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    -- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
  13. But... by Faust7 · · Score: 3, Funny

    a remote-controlled robot on one end,

    I already teleconference with my boss.

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    The coolest voice ever.
  14. A Bi Reality by any other name... by PoisonousPhat · · Score: 3, Funny

    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".
  15. It's First Macro Virus by raumdass · · Score: 3, Funny

    "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'".