

Affordable telepresence robots heading home - wheeler69
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57617243-76/affordable-telepresence-robots-heading-home/

======
noonespecial
Telepresence is likely the first killer app for robotics. It's been possible
for quite some time now but very difficult to do well.

The ubiquity of good, low-power wireless networking was the holdup. Our phones
and tablets have finally brought this about.

First the robots appear as a toy to watch your pets from work, then you
personal assistant pops in twice a day from India/Africa/(low wage outsource
of the moment), and finally Siri rolls around your house picking up your socks
(and informing the NSA if your feet smell at all terrorist-like).

Welcoming robot overlords and all that 20th century slashdot yap...

~~~
bliti
Telepresence might start breaking into manufacturing by allowing one worker
control of multiple robots at once from a remote location. I've seen
prototypes of this already, but nothing solid. Maybe the costs are still too
high.

~~~
noonespecial
Workers are still exceptionally cheap. I'd sooner expect to see it used to
bring a worker from Bangladesh to a factory in Germany. It would multiplex the
opposite direction: many "cheap" workers rotating to keep a single robot
working 24/7 in an "expensive" country.

------
waterlesscloud
Telepresence robots seem like a narrow niche to me. I'm not sure I see them
breaking into home use.

They offer two advantages over video on a tablet-

1) Height, and therefore a certain kind of sense of presence that might be
useful in a business setting. It makes you a bit more a part of a meeting than
a speakerphone on a desk, or even a tablet on a desk. Harder to ignore or
overlook.

2) Mobility. Useful in office settings, certainly. Useful for a doctor making
rounds, that kind of thing. Less useful in a home, and currently stairs of any
kind would be a showstopper. As would doors (which could be automated in an
office/hospital/etc, but not likely in a home).

For more intimate contact with family, though, it seems to me a tablet is far
superior. They can be held and moved by the person on each end, and held
closer as well. Plus they just seem more personal.

Telepresence Robots seem useful for cases where you want a sense of personal
space around your video image. Tablets seem more useful for when you
explicitly don't.

------
blisterpeanuts
2 hours of battery life seems pretty short. The tablet portion should probably
have a separate battery and can then have a 7-10 hour battery life, like most
tablets these days.

Maybe they should add a wireless charger to the package. When the batteries
get down to 10%, the unit automatically wheels back to the charging station.

Now, if there's a sleeping dog in the way, or a box or something, then the
robot's out of luck, but otherwise it just takes care of itself, like a person
going to the toilet once in a while.

The other obvious thing the product needs is a robotic arm. So useful.
Obviously, bringing the medicine to a bedbound patient springs to mind, but
the uses are really unlimited.

------
evv
I've always felt that a race to the bottom has been inevitable for
telepresence robots. Just look at what happened to Android tablets.

This 50% subsidized pricing on a new product tells me the race has already
begun.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Only a matter of time before Google steps in, what with their robotics and
iphone designer purchases.

------
ollysb
Maybe I'm getting old, but the thought of a father tucking their kids in from
the office does not sit well with me...

~~~
bliti
Agreed. Why can't it be the other way around? The robot being at the office
and the father being at home.

