Pilot Presence

Remote Presence Links for February 11, 2011

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

This week has been quite busy with Social Media Week around the world (which I am involved in) and been watching how the video of the Anybot QB was ordering a scone became quite viral (see here and here and here and here and…) as well as the video of the vGo helping the student, I think there were some other articles extolling the benefits of remote presence. Here are some links:

Giving a little telemedicine in California

Low Cost Video Chat Robot – (Thoughtware TV) Johnny Chung Lee spent about $500 and put together a iRobot Roomba with his laptop and a video cam and came up with a working remote presence system. The only thing I (kinda) had an issue with – a floating laptop is a little scary to me!
Lift11: Sabine Hauert, Robotics today – Sabine Hauert, a PhD in robotics from EPFL speaks at the Lift11 conference in Geneva about how robots are coming – especially the opportunity of robotic telepresence. (h/t to Stephanie Booth for the live blogging)
Robot helping fill Kern’s specialist doctor gap – (Bakersfield News) While this is not remote presence the way I have taken to describing it, I liked the human aspect of this story on InTouch Health’s RP-Lite operating in a Bakersfield hospital. As the technologies become more and more accessible in terms of price, I see this being more commonplace rather than news-worthy.

Posted in Intouch Health, Remote Presence Links, Remote Presence News, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged #smw11, #smwnyc, Anybots, Anybots QB, DIY remote presence systems, InTouch Health, LIFT'11, RP-Lite, Sabine Hauert | Comments Off

Flashback: Telepresence from 1980 – NYC to LA

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

This past weekend, a number of interesting links have shown up – but not directly relatable to players in the market today. So, how about a blast from the past and see what happened in 1980 when Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz created a “Hole in Space” from Lincoln Center to the open-air Shopping Center in Century City. The video is quite interesting in watching how the passerbys reacted to the presence of people from 3000 miles away.

In 1980, artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz created a “Hole in Space” by linking bigger-than-life displays in New York and LA with a satellite feed. It was the mother of all video chats — they showed that size and bandwidth matter in communicating presence and emotion. For three days, the installation brought together people from across the country in a way they had heretofore never experienced.

See http://www.ecafe.com/getty/HIS/index.html for the website of the event.

(h/t to Adam Pritzker)

Posted in Remote Presence Amusement, Remote Presence Links | Tagged Hole in Space, life-sized video presence, remote presence, telepresence | 2 Comments

Superbowl Sunday Ad for Anybots

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

No, Trevor and the team did not pay for a “real” Superbowl Ad. Just that a friend found that Red Rock Coffee, on Castro Street in Mountain View, CA posted a great video of the QB using a 4G network to visit the coffee shop to purchase scones. Funniest part was the number of people photographing and videoing the incident.

And that is Daniel Casner (I think) navigating the QB (the two-way video must not have been on for bandwidth considerations.

(h/t to Jeff Greenhouse)

Posted in Anybots QB, Remote Presence Amusement, Remote Presence Systems | Tagged Anybots, Anybots QB, Red Rock Coffee, Superbowl Ad | 1 Comment

Remote Presence Links for February 4, 2011

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Well, the end of the week is upon us once again – and we come to a summary of some of the more relevant RP links I have seen in the past few days. And here they are:

HRI 2011 Conference Technical Program announced – The 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction is in Lausanne, Switzerland and they have just released the technical program which has some topics on telepresence robots. Now, if they could only have LiveStream there when they present – or even a couple of AnyBots – that would be an excellent way to enjoy the conference without all the travel.
ROS 3D Contest – The Results! – (Willow Garage) Both Evan at BotJunkie and Aaron at Singularity Hub show off the winners from the open-source hacking of the Kinect and PrimeSense sensors. And yes, my favorite was also Garrett’s Impromptu Sound Board.
Continue reading →

Posted in Anybots, Remote Presence Links, Remote Presence News, RPS Companies | Tagged AMOLED screen, Anybots, HRI 2011, Kinect, real-time translator, telepresence robots, Trevor Blackwell | Comments Off

Test-driving the Anybots QB

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Hanging around with the QB

As readers have seen in the earlier articles this month, Anybots announced their public availability of the QB. The week before, Trevor gave me an interview which I published here using the newest version of the QB.

In this article, I discuss the use of the QB and the aspects that I both enjoyed and could see improvements for in the coming versions.
Continue reading →

Posted in Anybots, Anybots QB, Remote Presence News, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged Anybots, Anybots QB, evaluation of QB, remote presence system, Trevor Blackwell | Comments Off

Anybots QB now shipping! With HD video! And lasers (eye-safe)!

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Yes – the buzz is across the mediasphere – Anybots has announced they are now shipping the QB en masse. See the discussion:

Anybots’ QB Remote-Presence Robot Starts Shipping (Technologizer)
Anybots begins shipping its telepresence robots today (The Next Web)
Anybots Starts Shipping QB Telepresence Robot (IEEE Spectrum)
Self-balancing Anybots QB now shipping, the future of telepresence is now (engadget)
Lasers Engaged: Anybots Are Now Shipping (Techcrunch)
Anybots Releases Segway-Style Telepresence Robot (Fast Company)

And from my experience with the newest version, the QB supports:

SD, HD and HD zoom video from the QB to the pilot using Anybot’s own video compression work which is based on the Theora video codec
Router switching (allowing for better transitions between two different wifi routers)
Structural improvements for better transportability (to handle the dings in the car)

Continue reading →

Posted in Anybots, Anybots QB, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged Anybots, Anybots QB, remote presence, remote presence systems, telepresence robots | 1 Comment

Interview w/ Trevor Blackwell from Anybots

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Trevor having a face-to-face chat with me on the QB

Trevor and I have known each other for over a year now, and last Friday was the first time I got to be remotely present at the Anybots office. When I first met Trevor, the QB was already running and I got to test it out from his office – just before Yuri Milner showed up.

Yes, that's me LIVE in the top video screen.

After close to a dozen iterations, using the newest QB was a much better experience – with the two-way video, standard and high-def video and even a HD zoom feature. After a year of using remote presence systems, it was nice to see how Anybots have been improving their offering.

Aside from getting to test-drive the newer version of the QB (which I will post in a separate article), Trevor and I spent a good hour talking about how he got involved in being part of this RPS revolution. What follows is a recounting of his past, present and the potential future. Continue reading →

Posted in Anybots, Anybots QB, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged Anybots, Anybots Dexter, Anybots Monty, Anybots QA, Anybots QB, remote presence systems, Trevor Blackwell | 2 Comments

Remote Presence Links for January 31, 2011

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

This week should be an interesting one, and the links we have today are ones that might be old or interesting to you in this space:

Pearl Nursebot from UoPitt, UoMichigan and CMU

NurseBot courtesy of CMU, U of Pittsburgh and Nursebot Project

Why I Don’t Like Telepresence Robots – YET – Travis Armstrong, a robotics engineer from Adept Technology spelled out his thoughts on his personal blog (Random Robotics) on his lack of enthusiasm for telepresence robots back in September 2010. We wonder what he thinks about the recent buzz from iRobot and Anybots.

Continue reading →

Posted in Anybots, Anybots QB, AVA, Intouch Health, iRobot, Remote Presence Links, Remote Presence News, Remote Presence Systems, RP7i, RPS Companies, VGo, VGo Communications | Tagged Adept Technology, Anybots QB, Fred Nikgohar, InTouch Health, iRobot AVA, NurseBot, remote presence system, RP7i, vgo | Comments Off

Remote Presence Links for January 28, 2011

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

This week had more research than news stories, but I am planning on some great content in the next two week. Today, to round out the week, some interesting links from around the community:

Building a Super Robust Robot Hand (IEEE Spectrum Automation) – a terrific discussion on an anthropomorphic robot hand from DLR that can support more natural human movements and impacts than currently designed. Best way to simplify this thought: the tendons and springs allow for the hand to handle impacts on the fingers. Hit your fingers with your other hand – note how they spring back a little and bounce back? Most robot hands do not do this. They are stiff and are quite fragile when impacted. This hand has some interesting properties. (h/t to robots.net and PlasticPals)
UMass Announces Research to Recreate Closeness of Daily Interactions and Mitigate Isolation – the team at UMass Lowell who brought us the first published paper on Use Cases for Telepresence Robots (pdf) are working on investigating where telepresence robots can help rehabilitation patients improve their lives through remote presence.
Hackerspaces Mini-Documentary (KQED) – great five minute video on the explosion of hackerspaces that are beginning to pop-up all over the world. Back here in NYC, we have NYC Resistor started by Bre Pettis and others and have heard a rumor that TechShop is coming out here soon. See the NYC Resistor featured on RocketBoom below: (h/t to robots-dreams)

Continue reading →

Posted in Remote Presence Links | Tagged assistive research, NYC Resistor, remote presence, robotic hand, telepresence robots, UMass Lowell | Comments Off

From Russia With Love – R.BOT Telepresence Robot

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

R.BOT showing some love to its small friend

As my friends at Plastic Pals report, there has been another player in the telepresence robot market for a couple of years – based in Moscow, Russia. The R.BOT 100 is a creation of 3D Detection Labs (3D Labs), a firm based in Moscow, founded by graduates, faculty and graduate students from a number of Russian engineering schools including the Moscow State Technological University (MSTU), Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and others.

As early as 2007, 3D Labs have been developing telepresence-like devices which include a “Robocop” called the P-BOT 001 which cost on the order of $10K and a high-altitude blimp/detection system called the OKO-1. The R.BOT 100 was the natural outgrowth of the P-BOT 001 which (if you have the google translate set to Russian) has the following specifications: Continue reading →

Posted in R.BOT, R.BOT 100 | Tagged 3Detection, R.BOT, remote presence system, telepresence robots | 2 Comments

Remote Presence Links for February 11, 2011

Flashback: Telepresence from 1980 – NYC to LA

Superbowl Sunday Ad for Anybots

Remote Presence Links for February 4, 2011

Test-driving the Anybots QB

Anybots QB now shipping! With HD video! And lasers (eye-safe)!

Interview w/ Trevor Blackwell from Anybots

Remote Presence Links for January 31, 2011

Remote Presence Links for January 28, 2011

From Russia With Love – R.BOT Telepresence Robot

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