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Communications Robotics Technology

Conference Robot Connects Offices in Different Countries 89

Posted by timothy from the bridging-gaps dept.
An anonymous reader writes "With travel getting so expensive this sure would be a neat way to connect people in separate offices and not just when they are overseas: 'Minneapolis-based PowerObjects Inc. has created an innovative tool to communicate with its development team in Islamabad, Pakistan. It's a 5-foot-3-inch, 215-pound robot called POGO — a sort of rolling, computer-screen on wheels mounted with a webcam that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of "Star Wars" fame.'"
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Conference Robot Connects Offices in Different Countries More

Conference Robot Connects Offices in Different Countries

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  • Similar to R2D2? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Other than rolling around, how does this compare at all to R2D2?

  • rolling, computer-screen on wheels mounted with a webcam that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of "Star Wars"


    Where the hell are you looking all I see is a small blue box with a LCD monitor attached.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mamono ( 706685 )
      That's what I said. Looks nothing like R2D2, except maybe because it has a little blue on it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sm62704 ( 957197 )
      And what is so innovative about putting wheels on it anyway?

      We teleconference between here and Chicago all the time. A couple of cameras and a couple of big, wide screen monitors and a speakerphone is all you need. We've had it for at least a decade.

      So making it stupid by having the TV set roll around is innovative? To paraphrase Zaphod, score one for for cool minus several million for brain dead. Have any of these people ever been in a meeting? The only thing moving around the room will be the monitor.

      Who
    • Seriously, I don't know what version of the Star Wars saga you've been watching, but I can see the *cough* slight resemblance *cough* between the two. They're both blue/white robots. with one eye and the ability to project images, albeit not the same kind of projection.
  • About a guy who "telecommutes" via a robot avatar in the office?
    Not that this thing isn't interesting on its own.

  • Webcam? Video Chat? How novel! (Score:4, Funny)

    by hlimethe3rd ( 879459 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:16PM (#23683281)
    POGO = $8,000 iMac + small wheeled cart ~= $1,500 What am I missing?
    • I think that a tripod and camera would be plenty of 'robot' for this task.

      You can even splurge and make it wireless. Now the hard part is figuring out what to do with the $7500 or so left over

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by eNygma-x ( 1137037 )
      No joke!!! Give me $9000 I will make it look like R2 and do the sounds! Their accounting office should be yelling at them right now! =)
  • I seem to remember seeing something similar in the movie Demolition Man. [wikipedia.org] However, the version in the movie wasn't on wheels. Rather, they were fixed around a conference table, but were able to pivot around the vertical axis.

  • Short on details... (Score:4, Funny)

    by lastchance_000 ( 847415 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:17PM (#23683301)
    So how does this work? The boss directs the thing to roll up behind you in your cube and tells you to put a cover page on your TPS reports?

  • This thing resembles R2D2... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Akardam ( 186995 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:17PM (#23683303)
    '... a sort of rolling, computer-screen on wheels mounted with a webcam that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of "Star Wars" fame.'

    I think even "slight" is stretching it a bit. By the same logic, you could claim that a guy on a skateboard with a super soaker resembles an Abrams tank.

    • Re:This thing resembles R2D2... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:39PM (#23683655) Homepage
      Yes, note to "anonymous reader": when astroturfing your products, it's probably best not to make comparisons that will result in mockage. Although if that was actually your goal, then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sm62704 ( 957197 )
      I had a vaccuum cleaner once that slightly resembled R2D2.
    • I totally agree with you. This thing does not look at ALL like R2D2. R2D2's key characteristers are: Round, dome head with no neck, and 3 legs. This creature is not round, has a square monitor for a head on a neck, and has multiple wheels attached directly to the base (no legs).
  • How does this thing do anything that cannot be done by either: 1) Calling an individual 2) Holding a videoconference?

    TFA references that "The company had already considered and discarded video conferencing as too expensive and less convenient. That led to the birth of POGO at a cost of about $8,000 to $9,000, said Jim Sheehan, the chief operations officer at PowerObjects."

    How is $9k (plus maintenance and cost of use) less expensive or more convenient? Is there a manager in the US whose job it is to move

    • Re:Am I missing something? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by planckscale ( 579258 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:21PM (#23683367) Journal
      The person offshore is able to remotely control the robot and "walk around" the other office, teleconferencing, joining discussions, hang out by the water cooler etc. I think it's a pretty cool idea. Watch the video.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Jor-Al ( 1298017 )
        Wouldn't the robot need to hang out by the oil cooler? I don't think they like water...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rhombic ( 140326 )
        Oh yeah, 'cause it's human nature to chat with a robot. Puleeze. If some idiot had one of these rolling around our lab, it'd have a 12" purple dong duct taped to the front of it, conveniently out the camera's field of view. Now that would be funny.

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by billcopc ( 196330 )
          You just gave me an idea for my next pr0n site!

          "You've seen the FuckingMachines, here's TeleDong!"
        • Personally, I was imagining a sign taped to the back of the monitor reading "Kick Me", "I never shut up." or "Lazy Ass Contractor."

          For that matter, a little anthropomorphism would go a long way to make this "friendlier". Just add a manequin torso in place of that pole, and let the monitor be the head. Then let the office dress up the droid however they see fit.

          Hawaiian shirt day? No problem - someone will donate a spare. Power meeting with customers, here's a shirt, tie and jacket. Heading down to the s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sm62704 ( 957197 )
      My guess is the idiot that came up with this stupid idea had a previous job at an internet based pet food company in the late '90s.

      Our leaders are morons, we're doomed.
    • The video report implied that the user at the remote end can drive the robot around to "take a closer look at projects". The only problem I see with this is how does the office manager in Islamabad become familiar with the office layout in Minneapolis? Does he have a map?

      And totally OT, but... four news anchors? Isn't that a bit excessive? Are two of them only there to crack weak jokes? It looks like an edition of University Challenge.

  • Photo link (Score:3, Funny)

    by InvisblePinkUnicorn ( 1126837 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:21PM (#23683361)
    I found this photo [stcloudstate.edu] of the robot.

  • Uh, yeah... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chris Burke ( 6130 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:21PM (#23683377) Homepage
    Conferences happen in conference rooms, and conference rooms don't need to move. You put an LCD and a camera on the wall of the conference room, get better bandwidth and a better picture, waste less space in the cramped conference room despite having a larger screen, don't have to worry about whether the robot is in the room or needs to be moved, and most of all it's cheaper.

    I mean they say they discarded video conferencing as too expensive... So how is this cheaper? Because it's just a web cam and not some custom video conferencing setup from a vendor with super high markup? Okay... Well why not ditch the unnecessary robot, and just get a nice screen and a web cam? Seems like you could get that $8k cost down quite a bit and still end up with better looking video conferences.

    Oh, right, because robots are cool. Well as long as I still get my bonus then I'm not going to complain if my boss wants to buy one...

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Conferences happen in conference rooms, and conference rooms don't need to move. [...] Well why not ditch the unnecessary robot, and just get a nice screen and a web cam? [...] Oh, right, because robots are cool.

      Well, maybe you've got these employees, and you want to manage them. You could attempt to perform 100% of this management in the form of getting people into a conference room. And you might find that wasn't very effective - the worker/manager meetings might end up more like supplier/customer meetings. I can see why a manager might want more tools than 'meeting in conference room' in their toolbox.

      Also, having a videoconferencing system in your boardroom isn't going to get any trade magazine articles writte

      • Well, maybe you've got these employees, and you want to manage them. You could attempt to perform 100% of this management in the form of getting people into a conference room. And you might find that wasn't very effective - the worker/manager meetings might end up more like supplier/customer meetings. I can see why a manager might want more tools than 'meeting in conference room' in their toolbox.

        My manager is in Bangalore, most of his team is in Texas. It works just fine. "Getting people into a conferenc
    • Conferences happen in conference rooms, and conference rooms don't need to move.

      Conferences happen in conference rooms, true. But product demonstrations don't. Facilities tours don't. Showing remote managers the problems on the production lines don't. There are times and places where this sort of thing would be much better than a static vid screen stuck to the wall. If you're managing a company that's half a planet away, where it takes you days to travel back and forth, then this may be a good idea.

    • Okay... Well why not ditch the unnecessary robot, and just get a nice screen and a web cam? Seems like you could get that $8k cost down quite a bit and still end up with better looking video conferences.

      I think you're missing the point, or more like the article didn't explain things well. The original telepresence robot was IvanAnywhere [therecord.com]. Basically Ivan moved away from his company, but was allowed to work remotely. E-mail and messaging wasn't enough, and it was frustrating to have just a camera in a single office/conference room and have to have people go there to talk to him.

      So, he and a friend built a "robot", basically a mobile webcam/screen/speaker with wifi. If he needed to talk to a coworker, he'd g

  • Cause it's worth the $8,000 if I can send it to meetings and it can ignore all the shit I don't care about for me.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Osurak ( 1013927 )

      Cause it's worth the $8,000 if I can send it to meetings and it can ignore all the shit I don't care about for me.
      No need. You can just send it there and then ignore the stuff you don't care about when it tells you what happened at the meeting.
  • 1) Why lie to me

    Well I suppose a bull and an elephant have a slight resemblence.

    They stand on four legs they have big noses and large eyes and big curved sharp horns/tusks pointing at the front of their faces...

    2) Waste of money They could achieve the same thing with a cheap laptop a cheap webcam/mic combo and a work experience kid to carry it around

    • Yea, looking at that you could make it for about $2k in off the shelf parts from the RC shop and Frys electronics.
  • From the pictures it looks kinda similar to the homebuilt version called "IvanAnywhere" I think:
    Robotic Presence For a Telecommuter [slashdot.org]
  • It would be more useful if it had one or two arms. [lynxmotion.com] If you are going to put wheels on it, an arm is only ~$500 and some lines of code more.

    Sorry for the slashvertisement, but seriously.
    • Put a beer dispenser in it. Then people will be more happy to have it roll up to their cubicle and chat with it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vrmlguy ( 120854 )
      I was going to say that arms would make it top heavy and more likely to tip over. But then I realized that you'd just need to use some Segway-like programming to make it self-balancing. Just stuff some accelerometers into its "head", and it would probably be good against people bumping into it.

      I think I'd like to home-brew one of these. Time to fire up my RepRap!
  • " that bears a slight resemblance to the R2D2 of âoeStar Warsâ fame. " Does it my arse.
  • It can also scroll "Happy Birthday Paulie."
  • But can it run Linux? What about a Beowulf cluster of these?

  • so, lemme get this straight... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gadabyte ( 1228808 ) on Friday June 06, 2008 @12:43PM (#23683703)
    instead of buying everyone a $30 pocket-sized webcam, they bought an $8,000 webcam that needs wheels and a propulsion system because it weighs 215 friggin pounds. then, perhaps realizing how stupid they had been, they decided to slap some blue paint on it and claim a (non-existent) resemblance to r2d2.

    huzzah?

    • There is an underlying question: why are the developers all on the other side of the world, making all this stuff necessary in the first place?

      No, I won't ask that question.

      ...laura

  • An idea that's bound for instantaneous obsolescence, as soon as someone sends it to the CEO's office at an inopportune moment. Or maybe the ladies room.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Jor-Al ( 1298017 )

      Or maybe the ladies room.
      That would be a rather useless endeavor unless it had x-ray vision. Those burqas are hard to see through.
    • The thing did look pretty cumbersome and slow, but imagine when these are fast, effective and can act more human. I can imagine having 10 of these lined up against a wall of the office, then come online and begin working. It's more effective than an online meeting me thinks. I would jump in one, go check out a noisy/cold data center, use a robotic arm to push a power button, or insert a usb thumbdrive and flash a bios from my cushy armchair and a laptop.

      • use a robotic arm to push a power button, or insert a usb thumbdrive and flash a bios from my cushy armchair and a laptop.

        Um, we do have networked switches for most of those tasks, y'know. Hell, with any decent LOM dongle these days you can mount CD images off the network and boot from them, which is way better than remote hands because you can then script the LOM.

        Want to roll out a system-level change to 100+ desktops at a specific time ? Piece of cake, you don't even need to wake up at 4 a.m. to monitor it.

  • ...that robot is less like R2D2 and more like vid-conferencing-on-a-stick. I could do the same thing with a laptop + webcam.
  • It'll be a POGO stick!

  • R2D2? What about Demolition Man? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ins0m ( 584887 ) <ins0mni0n&hackermail,com> on Friday June 06, 2008 @01:00PM (#23683921)
    Rest in peace, Raymond Cocteau.

    Any technology based off a Stallone movie already has the brain damage built in.
  • When the conference call is initiated by a woman, the robot will put on a hijab or burqa.
  • A rolling screen with a camera on it? Sounds a bit like this. [youtube.com]

  • HeadThere Giraffe (Score:2, Informative)

    by oogie ( 987105 )
    I've been working to commercialize a similar robot for the past few years:


    http://www.headthere.com/ [headthere.com]

    -Dan

  • Call me a skeptic (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ihatethetv ( 935399 )
    ...but unless robotics have really improved recently, I doubt this robot will have enough power to give the user a satisfying strangling grip and slapping power. The haptics problem here is not trivial and needs much more funding and maybe an xprize/GNC type competition. -G
  • Oh great, now we can have robotic pointy headed managers
  • It looks nothing like R2D2, but it does remind me of the original Holly from early "Red Dwarf," when he would roll around the ship in a motorized TV on wheels.
  • If there's an emergency meeting will one of those come and find you wherever you are? even if you're on the toilet?

    "Ahh! I told you never to call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!" - President Skroob, Spaceballs
  • Stairs, motherfucker. Stairs.
  • There's a similar robot in my area, although I guess the cardboard isn't as nice as the shiny blue paint. http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/236315 [therecord.com]

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