Conference Robot Connects Offices in Different Countries 89
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.'"
Similar to R2D2? (Score:1, Insightful)
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R2D2 eh? (Score:1)
Where the hell are you looking all I see is a small blue box with a LCD monitor attached.
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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
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Didn't we have a similar story before? (Score:1)
Not that this thing isn't interesting on its own.
Re:Didn't we have a similar story before? (Score:5, Informative)
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We use (Score:1)
No mechanical breakdowns
Webcam? Video Chat? How novel! (Score:4, Funny)
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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
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Prior art (Score:2)
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Short on details... (Score:4, Funny)
Great way to annoy your underlings (Score:1)
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It rolls over and...
*scanning for flair*
*16 flair instances detected*
*minimum flair requirement: 16*
*You belong to subset: "Always do the minimum"? y/n*
This thing resembles R2D2... (Score:5, Funny)
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)
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Am I missing something? (Score:2)
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)
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"You've seen the FuckingMachines, here's TeleDong!"
Packed full of 'screw-off' potential. (Score:2)
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
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Our leaders are morons, we're doomed.
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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)
Uh, yeah... (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
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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
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My manager is in Bangalore, most of his team is in Texas. It works just fine. "Getting people into a conferenc
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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.
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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
Can it pretend to pay attention for me? (Score:2)
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2 points (Score:1)
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
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prior art? (Score:1)
Robotic Presence For a Telecommuter [slashdot.org]
Give it an arm! (Score:2)
Sorry for the slashvertisement, but seriously.
Give it a beer! (Score:1)
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I think I'd like to home-brew one of these. Time to fire up my RepRap!
Erm (Score:1)
Paulie. (Score:1)
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Obligatory (Score:1)
so, lemme get this straight... (Score:3, Insightful)
huzzah?
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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
Intrusive Robotic Teleconferencing (Score:2)
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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.
In the fine MN State Fair tradition... (Score:1)
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Has it a stick? (Score:1)
R2D2? What about Demolition Man? (Score:5, Funny)
Any technology based off a Stallone movie already has the brain damage built in.
Pakistani adaptation (Score:2)
A rolling screen (Score:2)
HeadThere Giraffe (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.headthere.com/ [headthere.com]
-Dan
Call me a skeptic (Score:2, Insightful)
Bah humbug!!! (Score:1)
Wrong space AI, you smegheads. (Score:2)
Oh great.. (Score:2)
"Ahh! I told you never to call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!" - President Skroob, Spaceballs
Design flaw. (Score:2)
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That takes care of that problem.
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Sweet suckling Vishnu, that's disturbing if combined with this 'bot. It's already creepy enough to think that a roboboss can come lurking up to check in on me-- but to have it descend from it's perch on the ceiling? Uhg!
Ivan anywhere (Score:1)