July 23, 2003

Conference Bots to the rescue

ConferenceTelepresence.gifWarning: Robot geekiness follows.

Scoble can't make it to Gnomedex for similar reasons that many of us won't be able to make it to PDC. There's just too little time and money to go to all the conferences we'd like to attend.

But maybe the tech world can provide a solution. How about Conference Bots?

Video feeds are cool, but they don't give you the immersive experience we need. And as Scoble points out, you don't get the benefit of bumping into key contacts. So, what if PDC could rent out telepresence robots?

I could stand in my hallway at work (with my Tablet PC, of course) and chat with others in the hallway at the conference. Now this would have to be the ultimate corridor warrior experience.

I wonder: If robots like this existed, would PDC charge telepresence attendees the same? Yeah, I bet so--even though for lunch all we'd need is a bucket of electrons to charge the batteries. Well, at least we could forgo the travel time and expense of getting to the conference.

(Tech thought. I wonder if the WiFi can double as a crude positioning system for the robots and as a means to keep track of where people are?)

Posted by Loren at July 23, 2003 01:24 PM
Comments

Where's a VC when you need one?

Posted by: Lora on July 23, 2003 01:47 PM

Along with that the conference hosts could issue name tags with electronic identifiers that the robot could read.

Posted by: Bob on July 23, 2003 01:53 PM

Peter of Tabula PC says these already exist. Well, so much for living in a cave. I've got to get out more. Hehe.

I think remotely controlling the robot is the tricky part--unless you don't mind bumping into things or moving slowy. I guess for me I see two things: (1) make them light, cheap and simple to operate so they can be rented and (2) have fun with the concept so someone would *want* to use them.

Posted by: Loren on July 23, 2003 05:57 PM

Here you go. Off the shelf parts even.

http://www.nersc.gov/news/RAGE070202.html

Posted by: Niall Kennedy on July 27, 2003 02:21 AM

Cool. Ready to order.

Would you attend a conference via telepresence? Or is a video feed and/or proceedings enough?

Posted by: Loren on July 27, 2003 10:06 PM

Alternatively, virtual conferences could be run using online gaming software as the host environment. Eg. Quake II, Halo, RtCW.

I'd certainly log in for the "Microsoft PDC 2003 Death Match". You could still bump into people, but you also get to shoot them if they annoy you.

Kevin

Posted by: Kevin on July 29, 2003 03:04 AM

I bet Microsoft wouldn't mind...as long as you used Xbox. :-)

Posted by: Loren on July 29, 2003 09:55 AM
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