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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.

10 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 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

  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. 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...

  5. 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
  6. 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?
  7. 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.

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  8. 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.