Follow-Up: The Robotic Invasion
Normally I don’t post stuff I get in email but Fred Nikgohar, CEO over at RoboDynamics, was good enough to answer some questions thoroughly and promptly. Great stuff here. (Posted with permission!)
EXTERMINATE! Ok, sorry, couldn’t help it… you must be -> this <-- geek to appreciate that. On with Fred's email:
IvanAnywhere is a great roadmap as to how this may work. However, whereas IA is a one-off robot, TiLR is the first commercial product that will be mass-produced and more importantly, mass supported.
With regards to the UI and our app in general, is simply our Tester App internally. It is meant to demonstrate the capabilities of the robot. Back in August 2008, we began a series of beta tests with various customers where we placed robots for 4-8 week periods in exchange for feedback and usage data.
It turns out – as you so indicated – that most people who use it have a tendency for FPS Games… and at any rate, the point-and-click is not necessarily the best way to interact with the robot at all times (or for all people).
The actual application that we’ll release with the robot will only require a Flash plug-in and will be completely web-based. This means we’ll be able to support any platform without any further need for download/install. All user preferences will be saved in the cloud so a user will become truly machine-independent.
As for navigation, we will support two modes: Keyboard (FPS) and Mouse. Both modes are supported simultaneously and the user doesn’t need to take any further action to switch… they use either a keyboard action or a mouse action or even a combination of the two. If you want more detail on the platform technologies, you can read my blog post about our next software iteration here. We will be doing the first public demo of this new version on Feb 12th at the Twiistup 5 event in Southern California.
Aside from getting feature feedback on TiLR, we learned a number of other lessons. One of them is the issue of IT security, which is a rather loaded issue. In most companies, getting a wireless device on the wireless network requires a number of security provisions – and ultimately – some real person who will vouch for that machine on the network. Inherently a wireless device that can be used by any number of people (eg TiLR) is problematic for IT Security folks.
There are other concerns – as you indicated – about a roving camera inside a premises. This is both an IT risk as well as a physical security risk. Before I tell you how we’ve addressed these issues so far, let me also add that this is an area that we are still learning and many more iterations are sure to follow… (in fact, I am actively looking for a security consultant to help us here, and would appreciate a referral if you know someone who can be of assistance…).
The main thing to remember is that TiLR is simply a mobile Windows XP Pro box. It rides on the existing networks, can be provisioned using the existing IT Security infrastructure, and deployed/supported with the existing IT Staff. One of the features of our solution is the TiLR Server, a thin web-based registrar server that maintains the status of each robot, and initiates contact between a user/robot. You can think of TiLR Server the same way you think of the server your Skype or MSN Messenger client connects to. The server keeps track of who’s online (ie, which robot is online) and what is their status (in-use, available, etc).
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The benefit of the registrar server is that you don’t need to remember your Skype buddy’s IP address – you simply click and choose who (or which robot) you want to connect to. An additional benefit of TiLR Server is some basic auditing feature we’ve built in… which basically keeps track of who logged into which robot, for how long, etc.
It also maintains Robot Levels and User Levels – which prevents an unauthorized user to access the robot on the 3rd floor which only certain employees should access. As I indicated, however, this is a fluid area for us and we’re learning as we go along. I fully realize that we must do a lot more work in this area. If you are on a Windows machine, feel free to download our application (http://robodynamics.com/beta_support.asp#tcc) and I would love to give you a demo. Or, you can wait another month until we have a stable version of the Flash based client. Either way, I am very curious to hear your thoughts, as well as your readers’ thoughts, as to some of the issues and uses of this technology. |
