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DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

venturebeat.com

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

#11

This reminds of that board meeting scene in Demolition Man with all the monoliths with screens each projecting a participant's face on them. It seems interesting but I wonder if people would welcome this. Having an iPad with my boss' face on it rolling behind me at work feels creepy.

Actually this reminded me of that episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon gets paranoid about germs or something and builds a similar device to interact with others. It was also the episode where they bring in Steve Wozniak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1uj9VmCzo

Re: DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

#14

Very cool. How about a bunch of these located in places like the Louvre, the British Museum, that become available to rent when the museums are closed to physically-present tourists? The timezones work out great for people in the US, and the museums have nothing to lose since it's all incremental revenue.

Or at least virtual security guards in museums if they decide they don't like visitors at late hours.

Re: DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

#15
post #3

Until you can flick your "head" in the direction of someone who just spoke outside of your field of vision, these will continue to feel like you're at a meeting in a neck brace.

A fisheye lens mounted on the ipad might help there. It's just about high enough res that you might get away with rectifying the image to get rid of the distortion at the human end.

Re: DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

#17

This reminds of that board meeting scene in Demolition Man with all the monoliths with screens each projecting a participant's face on them. It seems interesting but I wonder if people would welcome this. Having an iPad with my boss' face on it rolling behind me at work feels creepy.

For reference, this is the scene: http://ispr.info/files/2011/07/DemolitionMan.jpg

Re: DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

#18
post #5
post #2

Very cool. There is a sense of irony in that Trevor Blackwell along with the other YC partners are backing a company that essentially wants to put AnyBots out of business. Interesting none-the-less though.

FWIW, Trevor (tlb) made a comment in a previous DoubleRobotics thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4376471

[deleted]

Re: DoubleRobotics: Telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be fun to hook up a head mounted display, so you just turn your head and the robot turns.

or just use the accelerometer of the ipad. turn yourself and and the ipad to look around the room. Would feel like you were moving a virtual window around. I doubt the robot can react fast enough for it to feel natural though.

Yep, the key is speed, hence why I said "flick". Next time you're in a meeting keep track of how many times you look at someone and back in less than a second.

But we have to go through this step before we can advance the technology, so I'm all for these style of robots.

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