Gostai introduces the Jazz robot – more surveillance than presence

And today we discover the new “telepresence robot” from GOSTAI called the Jazz.  Interestingly enough, the team at Gostai have eschewed the concept of two way visual presence which I use as a hallmark for a true RPS, and play in the range of the WowWee Rovio or the iRobot Connectr.

What is nice is that Gostai is a team that is sharing their own libraries in an open-source fashion and working to productize their offerings.  At close to €8000 to buy (close to $10K) and a more reasonable €1800 to rent ($2400) , it seems like quite a pricey solution.

I have yet to speak with Gostai on their new product, but when I do, I will happily post up the interview. For now, let me include the video presentation:

Update 12/20: just saw Erico posted his read on the Gostai and agree with his enthusiasm for the swiveling head on the Jazz.  One of the nicest things that immediately came out when watching the video was the “connection” that occurred when the head turned to look at the person in the remote location.

One thing to correct on Erico’s report, the Texai interface (in the first iteration) had the click anywhere and it will go design initially.  Due to limitations on integration with Skype, we needed to have the navigation interface separate from the video feed.  Keep an eye out on the Texai’s next incarnation – and you should see something exciting.