The Wall Street Journal goes ‘personal-presence’ robotic highlighting Anybots’ QB mobile robot (which sells for $9,700, complete with glowing blue eyes), VGo Communications, Xaxxon Technologies and iRobot (best known for Roomba but also with a toe in robotic health). The lead is a mother in Las Vegas ‘attending’ (via a QB robot ‘dressed’ as an Indian princess and then in a blue dress with grey cat) her son’s wedding in Paris. The video in the article demonstrates the ultimate extension of telecommuting, making Skype seem old-hat. If prices come down and designs improve, these all may be commonplace in 10 years. The Life of the Party–Ms. Garriott Uses Keyboard to Shake Her Robootie at Remote Wedding And enjoy this review of Futuristic Robots, Past and Present. (including the ‘false Maria’ from Metropolis, Gort and Robby the Robot.
1 thought on “Your weekend robot fix: "Life of the Party"”
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We all now that robots are mooted as one of the “next big things” in AT but I for one am still waiting to get one of any description into Hereward.
Apart from the prohibitive cost we keep hitting the barrier of not having a formal economic model for such technologies in order to measure the impact in terms of cost effectiveness. Equally, I would anticipate that the mistrust of technology that is endemic in the care professions at the coal face may be another inhibitor to the relentless march of the robots.
How do we get this ball rolling?