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A comment on QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all day.. Parent comment

Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by pg on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:13PM (#425316)
It's for mobile telepresence. E.g. you send this to the factory in China instead of flying there yourself. It has cameras and audio and a fancy laser pointer they built themselves. You drive it via the Internet from an ordinary computer.

It's much lighter than a Segway. Only 35 pounds.

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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by markessien on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:33PM (#425372)
That would be a bit creepy though. Imagine a factory of chinese workers, all sewing and this this silent rolling monster drifts slowly by, and they all stiffen in fear and work extra hard...
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by pg on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:47PM (#425396)
Frankly the remote guys are probably a lot less frightening than the ones on the spot.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by Ezra on Friday January 09, 2009 @01:19AM (#426304)
Especially after the people next to it figure out that nobody's actually watching the feed.

At this point, it's probably trivial to make it go past everybody every few days just to scare people, right?

That's the logical result of widespread adoption of this, isn't it? Similar to (most) security CCTV right now.

Either that, or elaborate "moon-landing" setups to trick the remote factory (or weapons) inspectors.

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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by ivankirigin on Thursday January 08, 2009 @02:10PM (#425437)
iRobot made something similar called the "coworker". It was a spectacular failure. It was shorter and ( i think ) a bit smarter about remote obstacle avoidance. They asked around $5K.

They never answered the question: why is this better than a conference call? This is doubly important considering it has no arms.

I'm certain there is a market for this or a similar kind of robot. It needs to have compelling remote presence, and it needs to be cheaper than $5K.

Adding up motors, computers, cameras, the chassis, plastic modling, etc. can get expensive fast, especially if you haven't ramped up production somewhere fast & cheap like China.

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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by ericb on Thursday January 08, 2009 @09:20PM (#426056)
If it had arms, I could hire a housekeeper from anywhere in the world to sign in and tidy up my place.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by pg on Thursday January 08, 2009 @10:45PM (#426139)
That is Trevor's long-term plan, actually. Instead of exporting goods, countries will export labor.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by ericb on Friday January 09, 2009 @08:25PM (#427444)
Makes sense. Wondering what bottlenecks he is running into on the way? Is it that arms are hard to do affordably?
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by bprater on Thursday January 08, 2009 @02:19PM (#425452)
Why better than a conference call? It has to be it's mobility. (Although, didn't they mention it needed to be tethered? It has to be because it lacks batteries.)

I think that in situations where data needs to be sucked up in a mobile way but not in a way that the environment needs to be manipulated (no arms), it'll work. Well, when it gets batteries, it would.

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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by mileszs on Thursday January 08, 2009 @02:30PM (#425469)
You're thinking of the old model, Monty:

"Unlike monty, QA is 100% battery powered, and gets 4-6 hours of runtime on every charge. Monty's pneumatics required it to be tethered at all times. Also, its much lighter at around 35lbs. Monty is too heavy to pick up."

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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by ivankirigin on Thursday January 08, 2009 @04:43PM (#425711)
It doesn't have arms to open doors and probably can't go up stairs. Quadriplegic mobility isn't that enticing.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by andrewf on Friday January 09, 2009 @02:32AM (#426358)
But does the display at the other end live up to the Yes Men's Management Leisure Suit?

(nsfw)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9Cs_UcTEE

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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by vlad on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:26PM (#425349)
A VC could have one in the office to make sure people are working. ;p
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by pg on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:42PM (#425387)
http://www.justin.tv/officecam
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by axod on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:51PM (#425407)
Who's the lazy one that lounges on the sofa? ;)
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by abstractbill on Thursday January 08, 2009 @01:58PM (#425415)
I've been thinking of swapping the sofa for a hammock actually... ;-)
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by axod on Thursday January 08, 2009 @02:01PM (#425421)
Good call. Make sure you remember to have a minion fanning you with a palm leaf for good measure.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by timr on Thursday January 08, 2009 @05:39PM (#425796)
We could just tape a palm leaf to a QA.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by pavel_lishin on Thursday January 08, 2009 @03:26PM (#425567)
We've all seen Speed! You could just put that on a loop.
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Re:QA from Anybots - the coolest thing you'll see at CES all... by uuilly on Thursday January 08, 2009 @07:40PM (#425950)
Seems like those little observer robots on the Death Star:

http://www.hoylen.com/photos/2002-10-12-starwars/sw047.jpg

No bad spin intended. As far as use goes, that's what it reminds me of.

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