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Conference Robot Connects Offices in Different Countries
An anonymous reader writes "With travel getting so expensive this sure would be a neat way to connect people in separate offices and not just when they are overseas: 'Minneapolis-based PowerObjects Inc. has created an innovative tool to communicate with its development team in Islamabad, Pakistan.
It's a 5-foot-3-inch, 215-pound robot called POGO — a sort of rolling, computer-screen on wheels mounted with a webcam that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of "Star Wars" fame.'"
Other than rolling around, how does this compare at all to R2D2?
Where the hell are you looking all I see is a small blue box with a LCD monitor attached.
About a guy who "telecommutes" via a robot avatar in the office?
Not that this thing isn't interesting on its own.
-- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
POGO = $8,000 iMac + small wheeled cart ~= $1,500 What am I missing?
I seem to remember seeing something similar in the movie Demolition Man. However, the version in the movie wasn't on wheels. Rather, they were fixed around a conference table, but were able to pivot around the vertical axis.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
So how does this work? The boss directs the thing to roll up behind you in your cube and tells you to put a cover page on your TPS reports?
'... a sort of rolling, computer-screen on wheels mounted with a webcam that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of "Star Wars" fame.'
I think even "slight" is stretching it a bit. By the same logic, you could claim that a guy on a skateboard with a super soaker resembles an Abrams tank.
How does this thing do anything that cannot be done by either: 1) Calling an individual 2) Holding a videoconference?
TFA references that "The company had already considered and discarded video conferencing as too expensive and less convenient. That led to the birth of POGO at a cost of about $8,000 to $9,000, said Jim Sheehan, the chief operations officer at PowerObjects."
How is $9k (plus maintenance and cost of use) less expensive or more convenient? Is there a manager in the US whose job it is to move the robot around the India office with a joystick? If that level of oversight is needed, shouldn't they just hire someone to manage in person?
This makes no sense to me. Someone please explain.
I found this photo of the robot.
Hello Peter, what's happening? Listen, are you gonna have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?
Conferences happen in conference rooms, and conference rooms don't need to move. You put an LCD and a camera on the wall of the conference room, get better bandwidth and a better picture, waste less space in the cramped conference room despite having a larger screen, don't have to worry about whether the robot is in the room or needs to be moved, and most of all it's cheaper.
I mean they say they discarded video conferencing as too expensive... So how is this cheaper? Because it's just a web cam and not some custom video conferencing setup from a vendor with super high markup? Okay... Well why not ditch the unnecessary robot, and just get a nice screen and a web cam? Seems like you could get that $8k cost down quite a bit and still end up with better looking video conferences.
Oh, right, because robots are cool. Well as long as I still get my bonus then I'm not going to complain if my boss wants to buy one...
The enemies of Democracy are
Cause it's worth the $8,000 if I can send it to meetings and it can ignore all the shit I don't care about for me.
Well I suppose a bull and an elephant have a slight resemblence.
They stand on four legs they have big noses and large eyes and big curved sharp horns/tusks pointing at the front of their faces...
2) Waste of money They could achieve the same thing with a cheap laptop a cheap webcam/mic combo and a work experience kid to carry it around
Whoa, that looks just like the conference robot mentioned in the article!
From the pictures it looks kinda similar to the homebuilt version called "IvanAnywhere" I think:
Robotic Presence For a Telecommuter
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
It would be more useful if it had one or two arms. If you are going to put wheels on it, an arm is only ~$500 and some lines of code more.
Sorry for the slashvertisement, but seriously.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Now the boss can jab you with his finger or kick yo in the nuts from anywhere on the planet
" that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of âoeStar Warsâ fame. " Does it my arse.
It can also scroll "Happy Birthday Paulie."
But can it run Linux? What about a Beowulf cluster of these?
instead of buying everyone a $30 pocket-sized webcam, they bought an $8,000 webcam that needs wheels and a propulsion system because it weighs 215 friggin pounds. then, perhaps realizing how stupid they had been, they decided to slap some blue paint on it and claim a (non-existent) resemblance to r2d2.
huzzah?
the united states is a nation of laws; badly written and randomly enforced -- frank zappa
An idea that's bound for instantaneous obsolescence, as soon as someone sends it to the CEO's office at an inopportune moment. Or maybe the ladies room.
Invenio via vel creo
...that robot is less like R2D2 and more like vid-conferencing-on-a-stick. I could do the same thing with a laptop + webcam.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=5&mode=thread&commentsort=0&op=Change&sid=288187
Brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
by Svw (1107541) on Wednesday September 05 2007, @05:22AM (#20476493)
This is awesome, the possibilities that could open up for telecommuters is incredible. I can see a feasible market for this where telecommuters are assigned a robot as their virtual presence at work so that they feel more a part of the company than an outsourced employee.
Me personally.......
I think it's more of a geeky/trendy/hip tool. There are many of us who have never been to the corporate office. I have worked with people for 1.5 years without hearing their voice or seeing their photo.
How cool would it be to use this robot to run around the Dell offices in India just to see how the other side of the world does their job?
It'll be a POGO stick!
Rest in peace, Raymond Cocteau.
Any technology based off a Stallone movie already has the brain damage built in.
Never attribute to Hanlon that which can be adequately attributed to Heinlein.
Put a beer dispenser in it. Then people will be more happy to have it roll up to their cubicle and chat with it.
When the conference call is initiated by a woman, the robot will put on a hijab or burqa.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I read a sci-fi novel by
Laura J. Mixon
called
PROXIES
that was about exactly this technology...
http://www.sfsite.com/11b/prox45.htm
A rolling screen with a camera on it? Sounds a bit like this.
Personally, I was imagining a sign taped to the back of the monitor reading "Kick Me", "I never shut up." or "Lazy Ass Contractor."
For that matter, a little anthropomorphism would go a long way to make this "friendlier". Just add a manequin torso in place of that pole, and let the monitor be the head. Then let the office dress up the droid however they see fit.
Hawaiian shirt day? No problem - someone will donate a spare. Power meeting with customers, here's a shirt, tie and jacket. Heading down to the server room? Here's an ironic printed T-shirt. Totally bungle that last software patch? Well, let's just hope you weren't trying to impress anyone.
Meanwhile, the remote user can use trippy Max Headroom graphics in the background of the telecast for the full effect. Seriously, this thing is packed full of screw-off potential.
http://www.headthere.com/
-Dan
...but unless robotics have really improved recently, I doubt this robot will have enough power to give the user a satisfying strangling grip and slapping power. The haptics problem here is not trivial and needs much more funding and maybe an xprize/GNC type competition. -G
Oh great, now we can have robotic pointy headed managers
It looks nothing like R2D2, but it does remind me of the original Holly from early "Red Dwarf," when he would roll around the ship in a motorized TV on wheels.
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If there's an emergency meeting will one of those come and find you wherever you are? even if you're on the toilet?
"Ahh! I told you never to call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!" - President Skroob, Spaceballs
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Stairs, motherfucker. Stairs.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
There's a similar robot in my area, although I guess the cardboard isn't as nice as the shiny blue paint. http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/236315
WTF is "5-foot-3-inch, 215-pound" in real units?
I've seen the real IvanAnywhere in person. Here are links: ... and check out the IvanAnywhere youtube videos.
http://www.ivananywhere.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IvanAnywhere
It sounds like actually being able to drive around a remote office using a telepresense/videoconferencing robot is a huge help to Ivan (who lives about 1200km away from the team he works with). Ivan's boss said that when the IvanAnywhere robot is down it's like Ivan is "out of the office". When the robot is down, it's like when an employee who regularly works in the office is working from home - they are less accessible (or at least perceived as less accessible) even if you can email, IM and phone them.
Yes, you could give every person in Ivan's team a webcam, but it still has a significantly different dynamic to just walking up to a person (or a robot). Also, Ivan has the ability to "look around" - he can pan and tilt the webcam on the robot, which makes it possible to interact with a group of people.
Video-conferencing. Way cheaper. Is this story really "news"? :)
No mechanical breakdowns