DailyDirt: You Can't Be In Two Places At Once... Yet.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, May 19th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The flying car is one of those futuristic technologies that will probably always remain in the future. On the other hand, there are some science fiction devices like telepresence robots that are actually becoming affordable -- and maybe even practical. Here are some examples that could be taking your place (with your permission, of course).

The Vgo telepresence platform has gotten some publicity for letting a "bubble boy" student go to high school using a remote-controlled robot. A lot of people would probably have enjoyed high school more if they didn't actually attend in person... [url]
Anybots has created another telepresence robot that could let more folks "work from home" using a friendly bot. But if everyone uses one of these at work, why have an office? [url]
A hovering balloon could become a telepresence robot, too. And a floating balloon robot has the advantage of being able to float up stairs and being able to navigate challenging terrains quietly. [url]
There may be a largely untapped industry for remote-controlled disembodied body parts. A robot tongue probably isn't the killer app for this market, though. [url]
To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: robots, telepresence, tongue
Companies: anybots, vgo

7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2011 @ 7:26pm

I always thought the term was "telerobotics". When did people start calling using the term "telepresence"?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 May 2011 @ 8:10pm

"A lot of people would probably have enjoyed high school more if they didn't actually attend in person..."

So what happens when his bot starts getting bullied by real people? Or maybe someone will remotely bully his bot remotely with another bot. Bots remotely bullying bots. At least no one gets hurt, though the bot damages might start getting expensive. He who has the biggest bot ...
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- Pixelation, 19 May 2011 @ 9:13pm
  
  Re:
  "He who has the biggest bot ..."
  
  ...has the bot that falls the hardest?
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- Michael Ho (profile), 19 May 2011 @ 11:57pm
  
  Re:
  There used to be a Robot Wars competition at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco in the summers -- I think that'd be a close approximation of what bullying high school robots would look like... :P
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Wars_(TV_series)
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- Chris Rhodes (profile), 20 May 2011 @ 10:23am
  
  Re:
  So what happens when his bot starts getting bullied by real people?
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- Chris Rhodes (profile), 20 May 2011 @ 10:24am
  
  Re:
  So what happens when his bot starts getting bullied by real people?
  
  You've seen Terminator, right?
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chuck, 23 May 2011 @ 8:04am

Surrogates is looking less like fiction
Remember how that worked out, altho' the girl "bots" were hot!
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