Robotic Telepresence – This is the Future
The New York Times has an article on “Robots in the Workplace,”, in which there is a video showing how Mozilla in Mountain View is using the technology. The “robot” in this case is essentially a roving video-enabled computer, with a screen mounted roughly head-height. The whole unit is sitting on a motorized base.
We have had “telepresence”-style conference rooms for years. HP’s Halo is used at numerous corporations to create conference rooms where the people appear to be in the same room. These types of conference rooms are very effective in erasing the distance between people, and allow better communications between participants.
Robotic telepresence takes this to the next logical step. Mozilla uses robots made by Willow Garage in Menlo Park, CA. (This Times article is a great plug for them – but, if it works, why not?)
Check out the videos: David Pogue does not appear to get it. But, the video of the team at Mozilla shows its potential.
This current version – a “screen on a stick” as one Times staffer mentions in the Pogue video – is really a first version. Sure, there are no arms, and you can’t climb stairs. So what? In five years, better versions will be everywhere in forward-thinking high tech companies and other organizations where the work is global. There will be home kits for people to build, too, because it is just too cool for science-oriented families to pass up.
Why will this be ubiquitous? Because this type of system allows for spontaneity – the you start up a robot in the place you need to be, and you’re there. No need to ask permission to be on someone else’s computer (like with video chat), and no need to be limited to a conference room where people are forced to come to you. In the robot scenario, it’s like walking in the front door. you can walk through the halls, chat with people without the formal limitation of being computer-a-computer. Of course this has legs. So to speak.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
