Remote Presence Links for May 12, 2011

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Floating Telepresence

After a flurry of announcements this week, we find ourselves with a bounty of articles. Enjoy the best of the bunch:

  • Telepresence robots go airborne – An interesting article from the New Scientist which shows a floating blimp to allow for remote presence. It uses what looks like a mylar blimp and a small projector (my guess a low-cost, low-power laser projector) to project the face of the pilot on the mylar blimp. While interesting as a different way of representing presence, we believe the the system is quite flawed since the laser projector does not put out enough lumens for a normally lit room, let alone for a sunlight-drenched space. But a nice idea nonetheless. (One Percent Blog at New Scientist)
  • Luna Roundup – while iRobot’s presence at the Google I/O event on Tuesday has been making the blog rounds for the past two days, RoboDynamics has been generating a large amount of press as well for it’s $3K per Luna Personal Robot. As per our past post, see the roundup at IEEE Spectrum, Singularity Hub, CNET, ubergizmo, Plastic Pals and Engadget. And if you want in on the first run, head over to RoboDynamics website to signup for the notification email. Do we think it is a “telepresence robot”? Only if you extend it…
  • It’s Robots Galore at Google I/O – ummm, not really. Only if you think that Android phones moving around the table with some cute faces on them are “robots”. And we appreciate Colin’s comment in the article:

    “When I was growing up I always assumed there would be more robots than exist today,” Angle told the crowd of developers.

    So did we. (AllThingsD)

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Luna is not from Apple – but is it a telepresence robot?

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

So, the mystery is revealed and now we know – the funky Apple-like system is actually a “beige-box” form of a “personal robot” developed by our friends at RoboDynamics.

Luna from RoboDynamics

Luna has been a dream of Fred’s for some time – back when I met him a year ago, he was describing a sub-$1000 range personal robot that could achieve ubiquity in the home. And, as far as I can tell, Luna has evolved from the strangely thin concept drawing Fred had on the RoboDynamics site a year ago to the new device designed by Schultzeworks.

The specs are none too exciting from a performance standard (see sidebar), but the system was not meant to break any technology records. Instead, Luna seems to be a fulfillment of a dream of Fred’s to get a platform in the hands of others that could be used for development purposes. Continue reading →

Posted in Fred Nikhogar, Luna, Remote Presence News, Remote Presence Systems, RoboDynamics, RPS Companies, RPS People | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

iRobot shows up at google I/O and shows off the AVA

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Well – T-minus one day before the Mystery Robot is revealed – and I know that a couple of people are on pins-and-needles.

Yes – we did get a video of the MR in early April and no, it is not from Apple or iRobot (as far as Colin has confirmed).

Colin Angle with iRobot AVA at google I/O 2011

Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET

But today, Colin seems to have trumped the mystery company with a visit to google I/O in San Francisco to show off the AVA to a bunch of Android developers.

As quoted in this article from CNET:

“[Intermediate robotics] is the interesting one, with technology advances enabling robots to do things more like Rosie from the Jetsons,” Angle told thousands of developers assembled at Google’s show. “That’s where you all come in. The robot industry can’t be trusted to solve this problem. We need the mobile computing industry to come in and save our bacon through things like this.”

As from the conversation I had with Colin at InnoRobo, Colin speaks about how he wants AVA to be a development platform using the Android OS as the base. From today’s announcement, it seems as though iRobot is getting ready to roll out a “developer version” of AVA by the end of the year, and a “business” version by next year.

“Our goal is to get the installed base up, so you can get started writing apps for robots, so we can achieve this vision of robots doing things impactfully for us in our lifetimes,” says Angle.

Posted in AVA, google I/O 2011, iRobot, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Interview w/ Fred Nikhogar from RoboDynamics

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Fred Nikgohar

As usual, I started this interview with the standard: how did you start in robotics? For Fred, this is an unusual question since he graduated with a degree in business from USC, after taking two semesters in film.

“I watched Star Wars way too many times – maybe over a thousand times by the time I was 15. I was always fascinated by the cool robots and the notion that the robots were part of everyday life in this world. In the movies, people were living and working with these robots. So, I would play with electronic kits (like the old Radio Shack Electronic Kits) and learned about mechanics and electronics at an early age.”

In 1997, live footage of the Mars Sojourner recaptured Fred’s imagination. He was amazed at how the video happened – just a short 8 minute delay on CNN live. He thought – an avatar on Mars; there must be applications here on Earth.

IO2

After graduating, Fred got involved in real-estate and was making good money. Around September 11th, he decided that he wanted to pursue his dream of robotics. So he spent two years talking to people in academia, the military and corporations – to learn why robotics had lagged the technology wave for so long. The concept is not particularly revolutionary (e.g., Golem was thousands of years ago), but he could not understand why robotics seemed relegated to the academic space. Why not create a home robot? He had seen many companies sputter just building robots for the sake off building robots; he wanted to solve a real problem. And that is when the thoughts of the Mars Sojourner returned.

Continue reading →

Posted in Fred Nikhogar, Remote Presence News, Remote Presence Systems, RoboDynamics, RPS Companies, TiLR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Interview w/ Fred Nikhogar from RoboDynamics

Telecommuting with RPSes – great idea!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Twitter from Anybots
And why not? One of the benefits from telepresence and remote presence systems that is very important is remote workers. As someone who is dying for my next RPS to play with – as I travel back and forth from NYC to London to California – I keep crying out for my Texai!

Posted in Anybots QB, Remote Presence Systems, Texai | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Its been a quiet month of April…

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

But this week, the news is beginning to seep out.

First off, Telepresence Options does a comparison of the products on the market today in their latest mag (seen on Scribd). See here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54471238/Telepresence-Options-Magazine pages 26 thru 28.

RP-XpressOur friends at InTouch Health have announced their RP-Xpress product at the American Telemedicine Association’s 16th Annual International Meeting and Exposition in Tampa, FL. As described in this post, the RP-Xpress continues the focus of providing the continuum of care to health providers.

As they describe on their website:

The RP-Xpress™, is designed for portability and flexibility enabling specialist telemedicine consults to take place anywhere across the healthcare continuum.

This lightweight, durable device can be used in a variety of configurations including mounted to a fixed location, placed on a table, or carried to the patient bedside as a handheld device.

Kind of reminds me of the Cisco Cuis – what do you think?

You can read the press release below: Continue reading →

Posted in Anybots, Anybots QB, Intouch Health, Mantaro, Remote Presence Systems, RoboDynamics, TiLR, VGo, VGo Communications | Tagged , | Comments Off on Its been a quiet month of April…

The RPSes are coming! The RPSes are coming!

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Saw this on Facebook – thought it would be fun to share:

The Anybots Army

Looks like there is about 50 of the QBs lined up here.

Anybots was at TED2011, Anybots is selling product – it looks like Anybots is on the move…

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Interview with Dr. Yulin Wang from InTouch Health

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Normally in these pieces, I would go into the history of the founder and the way he/she built up their first remote presence offering. In this case, Dr. Yulin Wang (pronounced “Wong”) is far from an unknown quantity. So, instead of focusing on his back-story which is exhaustively captured in these articles such as Heathcare Purchasing News and TEDxAmerican Riviera), I spent more of my time discussing with him about the future of remote presence and where he sees the industry going.

Mini-Background

Dr. Wang got his Doctorate in Computer Engineering in the 1980s; at the time, microprocessors and computers were the hot thing. But, to Dr. Wang, coding algorithms to solve mathematical puzzles was one thing. Causing an effect in the real world was quite another, more satisfying endeavor. Yes, he could make an LED blink at a specific rate, but that end in itself felt unrewarding.  So from his vantage point, robotics was going to be the next thing – enabling a person to impact the physical environment in a meaningful way. Making an LED blink – ehhh; making an arm move – now that was more gratifying.

As you may know, Dr. Wang is the founder of Computer Motion, Inc. and after 12 successful years of working with those companies, he decided to strike out on his own in the guise of InTouch Health.

A Real Business Need

From this writer’s point of view, robotics has fallen into three particular categories for the past 25 years – manufacturing, telemedicine and hobbyist efforts. Manufacturing has stabilized in the past ten years – with only incremental changes in technologies. Hobbyists efforts have proliferated with the advent of robotics kits, shared software like Player/Stage, Urbis and ROS and the free sharing of content on the Internet. Telemedicine has been the one industry where the cost of robotics is dwarfed by the benefit of having the right person at the right time in an emergency. As we have seen in DaVinci Robotics and other surgical solutions, telemedicine has been a resounding success for having tertiary care at the point of need.
Continue reading →

Posted in Intouch Health, Remote Presence Systems, RP7i, RPS Companies | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Interview with Colin Angle from iRobot

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

Colin Angle from iRobot

At InnoRobo, I got a chance to speak with Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot – in a very candid interview about his view on the robotics industry, his vision for the AVA and how he sees the robotics industry shaping up in the coming years.

Cool over Function

As we started out, in keeping with his presentation he gave earlier in the day, he started off with a discussion on how there have been hundreds of millions of dollars spent on making cool demos – but relatively little in the way of solving higher value business needs.

To illustrate his point, he mentioned the incredible effort that has been undertaken on the development of humanoid robots. He calls this an exercise of “cool over utility”. As he mentioned, the challenge of having to build a system that supports the model of bipedal legs and actually executing walking and balancing has been a costly adventure. Even the most exciting systems often have a team of scientists walking behind it, the system itself has a mean-time to failure of about 45 minutes, and the performance is limited – all to the cost of millions of dollars.

Whereas the iRobot Warrior system, Colin feels is the first practical human-sized robot ever designed. Handling drops from 10 to 20 feet, able to carry payloads of over 200 pounds, and being able to go where human-sized systems should go – the Warrior is a solution to a problem that does not need a bipedal system, just a solid system that solves a high-value problem.

Thoughts on Remote Presence

So, in keeping with my theme, I steered the conversation to remote presence and how he saw AVA potentially accomplishing this. And he quite nicely broke down the problem and how AVA is an attempt to resolve the puzzle.
Continue reading →

Posted in AVA, iRobot, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

InnoRobo 2011 and some notes on the new Jazz

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Sanford Dickert

GOSTAI Jazz Telepresence Robot

As I have been reporting from here, the InnoRobo conference was quite an eclectic group of companies – coming from France, South Korea and Japan. Yes, iRobot was there as an exhibit presenter, but most of the US robotics companies were definitely in absence.

I spent a great deal of time roaming the booths in the exhibit hall at the largess of Jean-Christophe from GOSTAI (he got me a complimentary pass to the event). I was looking forward to seeing JC and the updated Jazz, after my first experience with it two months ago. And, while GOSTAI has not released their new user interface, the redesigned Jazz has a lot of physical and component improvements.
Continue reading →

Posted in Events, GOSTAI, InnoRobo, Jazz Connect, Remote Presence Systems, RPS Companies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment