Robot Avatars for Telecommuters

Posted 13 May 2001 at 15:27 UTC by steve

Sprint plans to make robots that allow telecommuters to have a physical presence in the office according to an article on Network World Fusion. While you work at home, your robot self will roll around the office greeting friends, going to meetings, and chatting at the water cooler. You will see through its eyes and hear through its ears as well as speak through it. A recent prototype of the telepresence robot which is being developed by Sprint Labs was shown at the NetWorld+Interop 2001 trade show.

Home robot apps, posted 14 May 2001 at 05:22 UTC by robodave » (Journeyer)

It's interesting to watch the applications slowly come out for mobile robots. At TNBT there's an interview with Helen Greiner of iRobot, in which she talks about the use of their $5000 toy for teleconferencing with added presence. Just can't wait to see manipulation added, so your telepresence can actually do something other than chat. Hmmm, telecommuting gophers? Sonys Aibo can now do email, and a NECs R100 can do email, take messages, and do some IR remote control stuff. But I want all that and bipedal motion. Just get Hondas Asimo to move like Sonys SDR-3X and add the internet capabilities and I'd be happy... at least until I think of something else it should do...

I've fallen and I can't get up, posted 14 May 2001 at 15:53 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

What happens if your avatar falls over? :-) But really, I'd love to have an avatar just for the simple reason that I would like to stay home and telecommute. Then again how long before we start having avatar races at work?