telepresence

Cisco, the networking giant, is making yet another big step into the consumer space, with the introduction next week of an inexpensive home telepresence product for personal use.

Consumer or Home TelePresence, sources said, might be launched with Comcast and Verizon. It is not clear if AT&T is involved.

The cost for a small unit could be as low as $200, but that price would be heavily subsidized. Another source said a $500 price point was also possible with fewer hooks.

The big selling point: The high-definition quality is supposed to be very good. Cisco will use this selling point to contrast it to what will be its big competitor: Internet telephony and video-calling giant Skype.

With it, presumably, people can interact in front of a television set with distant relatives and friends. … Read more

I'm getting used to the idea of test-driving machines I've never touched, or seen, in person. That's what telepresence robots are all about.

After scooting around in an Anybots' QB robot in July, I recently logged on to a Texai robot (formerly, Texas) over at Willow Garage.

The Silicon Valley firms have been developing wheeled, interactive droids in the belief that people will want to communicate with remote colleagues and friends in a way that some believe is richer than a phone, teleconference, or Web chat. Consumers will likely choose a robot based on design and usability, and the Texai does well on both counts.

The Texai is a Skype- and Web browser-operated remote robot (Willow Garage calls it a "remote presence system") whose main feature is a large color LCD screen showing the pilot. Mostly built from off-the-shelf components, it has two laser range finders, a wide-angle navigation camera, a pan-tilt camera, microphone, and speakers.

Once I was logged on, piloting the Texai through the Willow Garage office was pretty much a snap. With the Skype video call window showing the front and low-angle camera views, I moved around by clicking on and dragging a red ball in a Texai navigation window in my browser. I liked the fact that everyone could clearly see who I am on the screen, and I could easily see the faces of other Texai pilots through my Skype window.

The Texai lacks some features of the Anybots QB robot, such as the laser pointer, doorway navigation assist, and remote room lighting controls. But it's very intuitive to navigate once you get used to the setup--I poked my LCD head into a Willow Garage meeting, rolled into the company lounge and ran into another Texai user in the hallway, like robots passing in the night. … Read more

If you're lazy and dig the idea of a robot fetching you beer, the idea of a robot going to the office for you is even better. Anybots, a California robot start-up, is launching its QB telepresent robots this fall, and I recently got to take one for a remote spin.

The idea behind telepresence robots is to give users the ability to project their presence to a remote location through a robot, essentially driving a video conference around and interacting with colleagues in a richer manner than voice or video alone.

For the test drive, I first "robotted in" to the Anybots office in Silicon Valley (how quaint that this verb is still a nonentity on Google). My surrogate was QB12, one of many robots lined up in a hallway there.

The 25 QBs made so far are basically self-balancing Webcams on wheels. Lacking arms and legs, they look like living room lamps on Segways. They weigh about 35 pounds and can travel up to 3.5 miles per hour, fast enough to keep up with someone walking. Their lithium ion batteries can power them for six to eight hours of use.

When a QB is hosting a user, its eyes glow. The Web browser interface (currently Mac only) is very simple--you can see what the robot sees through its panning camera eyes; a smaller window displays a shot of its wheeled base to help steer. Navigation is through arrow keys.

You can also indicate objects (but unfortunately not atomize them) with a class II laser pointer, controlled by mouse. Three built-in microphones focus on the loudest voice they can pick up. A small screen mounted on QB's head will show a video of the remote user if he or she has a Webcam, or simply a photo.

Telepresence felt like a Webcam chat combined with Street View combined with an FPS game, as well as the sensation of riding a unicycle a million miles away. Driving the QB, though, was a very intuitive experience, and the robot's LIDAR obstacle-sensing system prevented it from crashing into people and walls, even when I wanted it to. … Read more

It looks like a cross between a Segway and Wall-E, but a new "telepresence" robot being unveiled Tuesday is designed to help companies save money on travel and expensive teleconferencing technology.

Currently known as the "QB," the $15,000 robot from Mountain View, Calif.-based Anybots, is designed for people in remote offices or locations who want a rich communications experience without having to use a complicated video conference system.

QB, which is slated to go on sale this fall, has both a video camera and a video screen embedded in its "head." It has wheels and can be moved around remotely by computer. It is designed to be able to steer its way clear of obstacles or people. As long as both the robot and the person controlling it both have access to Wi-Fi, QB should work for just about anyone.

According to Anybots COO Bob Christopher, the idea for QB came from new theories about interactions between people and robots. The hope, said Christopher, who previously was CEO of Pleo maker Ugobe, is that QB will engender a "more humanistic approach" to the relationship between humans and machine. … Read more

Cisco Systems has finally managed to acquire video-conferencing vendor Tandberg.

The networking giant announced Monday that it has completed a so-called voluntary offer for Tandberg, with 91.1 percent control of the Oslo, Norway-based company. Cisco said it will now launch a compulsory acquisition to pick up the rest of the outstanding shares. Following that move, Cisco will have paid $3.3 billion (19 billion Norwegian kroner) to own the company it has sought since its initial bid in October.

Former Tandberg CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will join Cisco as the senior vice president and head of Cisco's new TelePresence … Read more

Cisco Systems is set to make a major announcement Tuesday morning that the tech company says "will forever change the Internet."

Could this announcement include an AppleTV-like set-top box that does just about everything?

Exactly what Cisco will be revealing is still under wraps, but some industry watchers are speculating that the announcement will include several products that will provide a grand overview of Cisco's end-to-end vision of the Internet that will include new infrastructure products, as well as new consumer devices for the home.

One of the products that could be announced is an AppleTV-like set-top … Read more

In the future, all business meetings will be conducted by telepresence robots--on-site avatar machines that will take care of the boring business of earning a living while we sit back at home sipping lattes and generally enjoying our 300-year lifespans.

Even if you don't believe telepresence robots are going to eliminate the need to get out of bed in the morning, it's hard to dismiss them as a powerful new communication tool, especially if one is waving at you while perched on someone's shoulder.

MIT doctoral student Sigurdur Orn's MeBot is a mobile telepresence bot with richly expressive gestural abilities. It's part of what he terms "socially embodied communication," which is more immediate than an e-mail or phone call.

The robot--which was displayed this week at the Human-Robot Interaction conference in Osaka, Japan--has a small screen atop a three-axis neck that displays the remote user's face, as well as two moving arms. These moving parts help convey user expressions to the other party as the bot moves around on its wheeled base.

The arms seem to be controlled manually, but the moving screen automatically tracks user head movements like nodding or shaking. … Read more

Imagine seeing the world through the eyes of a mini telepresence robot perched on the shoulder of a friend miles away.

Japanese researchers at Yamagata and Hirosaki universities have been developing an experimental Wearable Telecommunicator that's operated by a remote user who can see, hear, and gesture through the shoulder bot and the Internet.

The video shows the simple robot being controlled by an operator wearing special goggles, and then an exchange in which he communicates with a remote pair discussing a soccer game.

The system provides a richer communication experience than a cellphone or Webcam, but it requires … Read more

If you're tired of commuting to the office and telecommuting won't cut it, the Texas Robot lets you scoot around work embodied in a robot platform while chatting with your co-workers.

Willow Garage, a robot start-up in California's Menlo Park specializing in non-military applications, is developing the wheeled bots as tools to research telepresence technologies.

The vid below shows how a Willow Garage employee living in Indiana moves around his office in Silicon Valley in a robot body of sorts.

Hacked together from spare parts for Willow's PR2 platform, Texas Robots basically consist of a screen, … Read more