The Robot Invasion Has Begun!
I had first heard of “telepresence robots” on a Spark radio show from 2007. It was an interesting experiment, but at the time I thought that’s all it would ever be.
Since then, however, I’ve been in contact with some in the field and see ongoing development in the area. Here are two videos that will give you an overview:
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(Side note: ever notice that nobody can use a capital “i” or “e” in the names of their products anymore? God we’ve all become such… geeks!)
One little fact not expressly mentioned is that both robots feature proximity sensors to keep them from bumping into anything. Obviously, without that, this whole thing would be a non-starter.
I have to wonder about ease of use and security concerns, not to mention display sizes… but those issues aside (assuming imminent upgrades), from what I understand at least the folks over at the Waterloo Sybase offices really respond well to working with a robot. Until we see the results of wider test marketing, however, it’s hard to tell how the average office might operate with robots wandering around.
Is this the future? Honestly I don’t know, but it is the kind of thing that needs to be attempted before we can give a definite answer. Gut reactions are the enemy here.
Of course, as soon as I imagine an office full of these things, all piloted by workers at home, the question immediately becomes “well why not just use a virtual world?”