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Telepresence Store Staffed Remotely Using Robots

Posted by Soulskill on from the meatspace-as-a-service dept.

Molly McHugh writes: What better way to sell telepresence technologies than having the store employees themselves appear via robot? At the Beam store in Palo Alto, Calif., no human salespeople physically appear, only robots. Users appear on the 17-inch display and control the robot via keyboard, mouse, or Xbox controller. Beam can roll as fast as two miles per hour. People behind the screen control the Beam through their computers, and two wide-angle cameras attached to the top of the bot lets them see everything happening around the store. It’s a bit eerie, watching floating heads tool around and talk to people in this video, and the customers’ react to the Beam with confusion and wonder.

36 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Cool, walk the walk! by iamacat · · Score: 2

    Wish more companies consistently bought into their own message. Cisco employees should be able to work from home from any place in the world, right??

    1. Re:Cool, walk the walk! by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wish more companies consistently bought into their own message. Cisco employees should be able to work from home from any place in the world, right??

      To be fair, Cisco is beginning to work like that.

      The Cisco Systems executives remotely work from their yatch and the Cisco Systems workers remotely work from India.

    2. Re:Cool, walk the walk! by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      And where they have partnerships with other distributors, they pass blame to evade doing either (until you can definitively prove that their appliance is at fault.)

      (But to be fair, VMware does that too.)

    3. Re:Cool, walk the walk! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      yacht??? satellite internet has to much lag for live remote control

    4. Re:Cool, walk the walk! by snikulin · · Score: 1

      Ordering to a butler does not require CAN

    5. Re:Cool, walk the walk! by asylumx · · Score: 2

      No, clearly he is referring to them working from their yatch -- which probably makes more sense anyway.

  2. Actual Link to the video mentioned: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8rbD7KihQ

    1. Re:Actual Link to the video mentioned: by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8rbD7KihQ

      I laughed when the interviewer asked what happens if someone tries to steal a robot. The guy answering started off by saying it would be really hard as they weigh 92 pounds. Oh that's sooooo heavy.

      But my first impression was that the robots were too short for the sales experience. The customers in the store would have had to stoop or bend over to be "face to face" with the telepresence operators. I'm guessing that the height was a compromise between a robot "sitting at a desk" and "walking around".

      One thing I did think of was that for a series of retail stores you only need to "staff" all the stores for the average number of customers across the total number of stores.

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    2. Re:Actual Link to the video mentioned: by parkinglot777 · · Score: 1

      I laughed when the interviewer asked what happens if someone tries to steal a robot. The guy answering started off by saying it would be really hard as they weigh 92 pounds. Oh that's sooooo heavy.

      Completely agree. Also, this is an "honest" system which may work only in developed countries. This type of technology would never be used in any third world countries because both merchendises and robots would be stolen in a heart beat.

      But my first impression was that the robots were too short for the sales experience. The customers in the store would have had to stoop or bend over to be "face to face" with the telepresence operators. I'm guessing that the height was a compromise between a robot "sitting at a desk" and "walking around".

      That may be the case. However, I don't see that it is a problem. Also, they could easily improve it and make the screen tilt up and down. By pushing from the bottom part of the screen to tilt upward, they could face a tall person, and leave it the way it is to face a shorter person.

    3. Re:Actual Link to the video mentioned: by sjames · · Score: 1

      They could equip the robots with tasers, including embedded in their outer shells. A truly determined thief could probably find a way, but most would end up on the floor.

  3. How is this more efficient than employees on site? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Cut out the expensive electronics, just have staff walk the floor in person. This is too close to uncanny valley for me.

  4. Reminds me of an old children's cartoon... by wierd_w · · Score: 1

    (Well, It was "aimed" at kids.. but I wonder...)

    "Hey kids, this must be your dad-- I didn't know he was a talking head!"

    Prof Membrane shows up as the floating head just as often (if not more often) than not.

  5. So ... by harryjohnston · · Score: 1

    Does that include the security guards?

    1. Re:So ... by wierd_w · · Score: 2

      Remote activated tazer/stun-gun sounds interesting. Tear gas canister would also be possible I suppose...

      Wonder when the hostage crisis teams of the world will start to send in telepresence robots with active weapons systems...

    2. Re:So ... by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      They can't do stairs so they can't work to well as one.

    3. Re:So ... by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Remote activated tazer/stun-gun sounds interesting. Tear gas canister would also be possible I suppose... Wonder when the hostage crisis teams of the world will start to send in telepresence robots with active weapons systems...

      Why? SWAT teams are already armed and armored to the teeth and will assault with massive force, it's extremely rare that any of them are killed relative to the hostages. Sending in a robot to stir the hornet's nest would only lead to a massacre, either you go in full force or you don't. It could end non-hostage situations sooner but just waiting it out until the nutcase with the gun surrenders (or suicides) seems to be pretty efficient too. I guess you could have a telepresence hostage negotiator, but a smart hostage taker wouldn't give the police a live video stream to plan and time their raid with.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:So ... by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      I think you're missing the point. If the hostages are also robots, then it ceases to be an issue.

    5. Re:So ... by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · · Score: 1

      They can't do stairs so they can't work to well as one.

      Hi, Welcome to Beam! Can I help you find something? Or, perhaps...EXTERMINATE!

  6. Re:How is this more efficient than employees on si by pokoteng · · Score: 2

    I think the point is they're eating their own dog food, that is, showing the clients that what they're selling works. It's obviously more of a hassle than having physical people, but the message would be clear. Whether the actual effect of such marketing effort is positive or not, remains to be seen.

    --
    the game
  7. hmm by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Funny

    At the Beam store in Palo Alto, Calif., no human salespeople physically appear, only robots.

    From what I can tell Best Buy beat them to it by 10+ years...

    --
    Do you have ESP?
    1. Re:hmm by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

      Your post made my day!

      --
      We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  8. Yeah right by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

    And who knows if the guys are wearing pants or not when they're working from home? All we see is their face!

    Always ask for a saleswoman.

    --
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  9. Remote Torso® by networkzombie · · Score: 1

    I have wanted to build a remote torso for years. It is a torso (duh) with robotic arms. Basically whenever you need a plumber, a dishwasher, a doctor, or a computer tech, you would take your Torso® out of the closet and place it in the desired area where it would be controlled by an expert and complete its tasks without the need for anyone traveling to your home. After many nightmares about a chef stabbing me to death when I didn't complement him on his chicken pot pie, I decided to ditch the whole idea and hope no one else picks it up.

    1. Re:Remote Torso® by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      That's what the remote with off button is for.

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
    2. Re:Remote Torso® by networkzombie · · Score: 1

      In my dream, one of the developers had a hidden IPv6 IoT Wake on WAN setting turned on by default in the UEFI v3. It was missed by quality control. We didn't worry about getting hacked or people dying because we paid our insurance policy that year, also we didn't want to pay our engineers a decent wage to do good work because insurance against lawsuits was cheaper. We outsourced to Apple, who outsourced to Foxconn, who outsourced to a soccer ball factory in Kyrgyzstan. It works well, if you remember to compliment the chef.

  10. Re:How is this more efficient than employees on si by gnupun · · Score: 1

    It's more efficient because the bosses can now hire sales people from cheaper cities or even cheaper countries but the selling price will be the same as if the sales person were hired locally (i.e. no discount).

  11. Re:Labor Loopholes? by Skidborg · · Score: 1

    Wait until the robots can stock shelves and clean up smashed jars of pickles...

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  12. Re:Labor Loopholes? by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Wait until the robots can stock shelves and clean up smashed jars of pickles...

    The human don't have to bother with smashed jars of pickles...

    "Smithers! Release the Roomba!" "Yes, Mr. Burns head."

  13. Re:Labor Loopholes? by Justpin · · Score: 1

    Robots can stack shelves. There is a 7-11 in Hong Kong on the corner of Kimberley Road and Canarevon road. It is a tiny retail space the shelves are stacked from behind by a sort of reverse vending machine mechanism. It looks strange because the fridges are quite shallow holding 3 layers of canned drinks. You take one out and you hear a faint whirring and the 2nd can gets pushed forward with another drink from behind. Of course it can't do everything.

  14. 100Yen Sushi by Justpin · · Score: 2

    This reminds me a lot of Japan. In the 100Yen Kaitan (conveyor Sushi) places they don't have on site managers. They have the master (the chef) and a waitress. To keep costs low they have one manager who watched the stores via Webcams placed everywhere. The manager directs multiple stores via what they seen on the webcams and if there is a complaint they're connected via a video call.

    1. Re:100Yen Sushi by Justpin · · Score: 1

      What happens with shop lifters too? I think they will probably have one/two people per store who switch roles through the day. Lidl and Aldi have this. The check outs are not staffed all the time the staff are moving stock in and out on pallets and you ring a buzzer if you want somebody to serve you at the check out. But real huge one man stores have been operating for a while. Big tiles/carpets/furniture stores are often run by one person as the stock is hard to steal and the customer service is non existent.

    2. Re:100Yen Sushi by sjames · · Score: 1

      See Mork and Mindy talking about not having enough money at a restaurant on Ork. "We had to tip the waiter".

  15. Re:How is this more efficient than employees on si by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

    And when they breakdown, the little oompa loompas come out and whisk away the failed robots for repair, all while singing their happy little bits of wisdom!

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  16. Immigration Issues in 3... 2... 1... by Press2ToContinue · · Score: 1

    So, the person operating the telepresence robot could very well be in India, or Japan or Botswana. And they are signed in and running a "robot" in the USA, taking the place of a US worker or (insert any other country here.)

    I can only hope this will resolve to the conclusion that these would then be considered people working in the USA, and would require a visa, and that the robot operators must be in the same country or have a visa to work in this country.

    Extrapolate one more level, and I believe the next logical conclusion is that the people in overseas call centers who help people in the USA via technology are also "dialed in" and therefore require visas.

    It's possible that this can bring sanity back to offshoring jobs.

     

    --
    Sent from my ENIAC
  17. Okay - that's cool! by ripvlan · · Score: 1

    Talk about eat your own dog food.

    Now if only I could think up a reason to own such a device - and get it past budget approval (aka wife) -- I'd be all in.

  18. good by salokye · · Score: 1

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