And Now… Telepresence Robots

May 19th, 2010

Mmmkay?

Mmmkay?

Via: Wired:

Robots have replaced humans on assembly lines, battlefields, space missions and rescue operations. Now how about doing something useful, like sitting through endless meetings for you?

Meet the Anybots QB, a telepresence robot that can represent you in the office by sitting in conference rooms, going to meetings and rolling about through the cubicle farm. The whole time it does so, it displays a live webcam video of your face, while transmitting to you a live video and audio stream of whatever it’s looking at.

“The QB is an extension of you,” Bob Christopher, chief operating officer of Anybots told Wired.com. “It removes the barriers between people and work so people can teleport themselves to the office space.”

Christopher was formerly the chief executive officer of Ugobe, which made the ill-fated Pleo robotic dinosaur toys. Ugobe closed its doors last year, having failed to make a commercial success of its eerily lifelike toys.

QB won’t replace video conferencing, says Christopher, but it’s a way to look over the shoulder of your colleagues and employees without actually getting into the office. The robot can be manipulated by a user at home or any other location using just a web browser, and can transmit its master’s voice and video.

Think of it as a self-propelled Skype-cam on a stick.

A device with Segway-like balancing properties, the QB has two eyes shaped like a bug’s that give it an aesthetic similar to Pixar’s Wall-E. The cameras (and screen) are mounted atop an adjustable pole, putting them at approximately eye level with your coworkers. QB has eight hours of battery life, supports 802.11g Wi-Fi, comes with a 5-megapixel video camera and a top speed of 3.5 miles per hour. A 320 x 240 LCD screen on QB offers videos and photos, and acts as a control panel.

The $15,000 robot will be available in fall, says Anybots.

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