Hasta La Gadget!

A company called Suitable Technologies is unveiling a new remote presence robots system. The robotic system is called the Beam Remote Presence System or Beam RPS. The robotic system is designed to allow people to travel instantly to remote locations using video conferencing on a mobile platform.

The Beam RPS system has three components, including the remote presence device, the client software, and the beam docking station for charging. The robot has a display that shows the operator along with the camera on top placed approximately at eye level to allow face-to-face interaction with workers remotely. The robot itself is 62-inches tall and weighs 95 pounds.

The display attached to the device is 17-inches allowing the operators face to be seen in life-size. The internal rechargeable battery for the Beam RPD is good for eight hours of use and the motors propel the robot at human walking speeds. The telepresence robot has a pair of HD cameras with a 170° field of view vertically and horizontally.

The device also features a six-microphone beam forming array to reproduce audio, reduce background noise, and canceling echoes the system. The bot also has an integrated speaker system with enough volume to allow the operator to be heard in noisy environments. It also features integrated LED lights for operation in dark environments. The client software is available for Windows 7 and Mac computers. Pricing for the system begins at $16,000 for the robot plus an additional $950 for the charging dock. Shipments will begin in November.

Beam RPD telepresence robot costs over $16,000 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Devon Carrow is a fairly normal kid, except for the fact that his allergies are so severe that he has been compared to David Vetter, the boy who inspired the film The Boy In the Plastic Bubble. His allergies make it impossible to attend class with all of the other kids around.

The slightest thing could send Devon to the hospital. However, that doesn’t mean that he can’t attend school. Devon has a VGo telepresence robot that can travel the halls, sit at a desk and even go outside at recess time. While he is doing all of this through the robot, Devon is safe at home 5 miles away.

He controls the machine’s movements and camera from home, and interacts through the hi-def monitor and indicator lights on the VGo. This is the perfect example of how technology can make a major difference in our lives.

[via The Buffalo News via Neatorama]

Telepresence robots seem to be something that some people are starting to look at, and that’s one of the reasons why two Princeton students, Tianlong Wang and Xinyi Chen created the Helios robot. It turns your smartphone into a mobile telepresence rig for far less than other solutions.

Helios looks pretty interesting, as it’s an extremely low-cost solution. I’m all for telepresence, but spending thousands of dollars for a remote avatar doesn’t interest me at all. The Helios will retail for just $99(USD). The small, wheeled robot will allow you to have video chats with friends, family and co-workers around the globe, while you can steer the tiny ‘bot to follow them around or change camera position remotely. Thanks to a clever system that reads symbols off the bottom edge of the smartphone’s screen, it should work readily with a variety of phones. The prototypes work only with iPhones, but after launch, the plan is to release Android and Windows Phone apps as well.

Hello Labs is currently accepting pre-orders for the device, which is supposed to ship for this year’s holiday season. They also plan on launching Helios as a Kickstarter campaign.

[via Make:]

Telepresence robots let you remotely interact with others and their environments using a robotic avatar. Sadly, for most geeks telepresence robots are typically far from cheap. A company called Double Robotics has unveiled a new telepresence robot that is relatively inexpensive for the market, even if it still costs nearly $2000. The robot is aimed at companies who utilize video conferencing frequently, and could even be used by museums to allow remote visitors to explore exhibits.

The 15 pound Double robot has two wheels and a battery-powered and uses an iPad as the display and camera on the robot itself. An adjustable arm that holds the iPad so the remote operator can look other people in the eye. The system is controlled by an app running on a second iPad held by the remote operator.

The robot will sell at a pre-order price of $1999(USD). The standard MSRP for the Double robot will be $2499. Keep in mind, that price doesn’t include an iPad.

[via DigitalTrends]

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Remote-controlled cameras are nothing new — heck, some even ride atop robotic vacuums — but this Android smartphone-powered device delivers quite a bit of versatility in a petite package with a reasonable price tag to boot. Botiful, a “social telepresence robot,” serves as a roving platform for your Android smartphone. You can move the handset (and its front-facing camera) up and down as it speeds along any flat surface, responding to commands from someone on the other end of a Skype video chat. Once you connect the device to your Android phone through Bluetooth or USB, you can control its direction from a pop-up window within Skype, letting you position Botiful however you see fit. If your Android phone doesn’t have a front-facing camera, you can flip it around to use the rear shooter — of course, you won’t be able to see the display in this configuration, so it won’t be ideal for two-way chats. Naturally, this makes the duo a natural choice for surveillance and baby monitoring, but it can also be used to provide a more immersive experience during conference calls or for sending back video from locations that aren’t easily accessible, such as the undercarriage of a car.

Designed in a garage in California (no, really), Botiful is already functional, with working software as well. The current configuration requires Skype for control, though an SDK will allow developers to create other control apps for the device — and who knows, the seemingly capable inventor could release another tool of her own before it’s set to hit production later this year. With much of the design already completed, the project sponsor is turning to Kickstarter to raise the funds necessary to launch Botiful to production — the device could ship as soon as November if it reaches a $90,000 goal before August 22nd. Available in white, blue or red, the remote-controlled rig is currently only compatible with Android, though iOS support may come if funding exceeds a $100k threshold. There’s still more than three weeks to go to make your pledge, with a limited number of pre-order slots available for $199 (retail pricing is expected to come in at $299). Hit up the source link below to show your support.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Botiful telepresence robot for Android (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras, Robots

Insert Coin: Botiful telepresence robot for Android (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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