Texas Student Attends School As a Robot

kkleiner writes "Freshman Lyndon Baty's immune system is so fragile he can't risk being surrounded by people his own age, yet he attends classes at his high school in Knox City, Texas every day. All thanks to a robot. The Vgo telepresence platform is a four foot tall bot on wheels with a small screen, camera, speakers and microphone at the top. Baty logs into the robot remotely from his home, using his PC and a webcam to teleconference into his classes. Baty can drive Vgo around his school, switching between classes just like regular students. For a boy that has spent much of his life sick and isolated from his peers, Vgo not only represents a chance at a better education, it's also an opportunity for freedom and comradery."

Comments

Typo

[XanC]

You misspelled "Sheldon Cooper".

Hostile Environment

[ThinkWeak]

I think this is a great thing and it's nice to see something like this being given a chance. However, I wonder how long this thing is going to be functional inside of a school. With kids in the halls traveling between classes, weather, random bullying, how long will it take before this thing is broken? I can't imagine it will survive being knocked over more than a couple times.

Re:My mom needs to see this

[maxume]

Just buy her a washtub, a box of candles and a few cord of wood.

Then make a habit of throwing away her fresh foods during the winter.

Perfectly natural

[OhHellWithIt]

At first, I thought the whole idea was just too weird. But then I thought about how kids interact with each other in Facebook chat rooms, and I'd say that it probably feels pretty natural both to Lyndon Baty and his classmates.

What's wrong with sexbots?

[tekrat]

Personally, I think you're more likely to get funding to build sexbots. There's *how many* Japanese companies that build multi-thousand-dollar sex-dolls already? And there's at least two in the USA that make high-end sex-dolls (and too many making cheap inflatables)...

Although there may be eyebrow-raising, most (male) people are secretly rubbing their hands together (and other things) at the prospect of an autonomous sex-bot. And while telepresence may be nice, whoever corners the market for sex-bots is going to make Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg look like paupers.

Although you may not believe it, Futurama has it right. Sex-bots might be declared illegal in some future, because it will seriously impact reproduction, it may lead to low number of human to human pairings as well as having half the population (women) wondering how they are going to compete. See: Chobits/Persecoms

Re:What's wrong with sexbots?

[Anonymous Coward]

Although you may not believe it, Futurama has it right. Sex-bots might be declared illegal in some future, because it will seriously impact reproduction, it may lead to low number of human to human pairings as well as having half the population (women) wondering how they are going to compete. See: Chobits/Persecoms

Are you kidding? A serious challenge to women's monopoly on pussy would be the best thing to happen to the human race. Imagine how much kinder and less manipulative women will become. If there's anything on this Earth that needs to be taken down a peg or two it's the average female ego that has learned through the eons to take it for granted that there will always be other suitors, so the mate she has now is "expendable" and "replacable" and it's somehow okay to toy with him using his desires. Currently, women unilaterally make the decision to terminate 80% of all relationships that break up, particularly marriage.

Shit man. With sexbots being common it might not be so damned difficult to find a good woman. They'd have to learn to offer something that a sexbot can't, like love and good conversation and real kindness and intelligence. The impact on reproduction isn't necessarily a big deal. Imagine how few babies will be born out of wedlock to people who had no intention of becoming parents and are neither financially nor emotionally prepared to raise a child. Imagine less contention for resources and the standard of living that would be available to an Earth with say, a population of 1 billion. Imagine fewer "crimes of passion" like all the murders and domestic disputes that happen as rival males competing for desirable women is greatly reduced.

Not really that new except for the condition

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was in the 3rd grade there was a boy who had had polio and teleconference into class. This was in 1958, the phone company even back then had some teleconferencing tech. (It was an independent phone company btw not bell). So the difference is Video. And recall that in the mid 1960s ma bell was all hot over videophones (they were at disneyland and the worlds fair among other places). So at that time it was just a question of cost the tech existed. Now again here it may be that the costs have decreased enough that its economically justifiable.