Remote Presence Links for February 11, 2011

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:

RPLite from InTouch Health

Giving a little telemedicine in California

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Flashback: Telepresence from 1980 – NYC to LA

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)

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Superbowl Sunday Ad for Anybots

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)

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Remote Presence Links for February 4, 2011

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:

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Test-driving the Anybots QB

Trevor and the Anybots QB

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

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

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

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

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Interview w/ Trevor Blackwell from Anybots

Visiting Trevor via the newest QB

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.

Using the HighDef video on the QB

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

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Remote Presence Links for January 31, 2011

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

Continue reading

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Remote Presence Links for January 28, 2011

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:

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From Russia With Love – R.BOT Telepresence Robot

R.BOT extended and base model

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

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