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from the never-leaving-our-house-again dept.
This fascinating article tells us what it's like to inhabit a telepresence robot at a busy convention, both positive and negative.
I logged into my telepresence unit and discovered myself in a small booth filled with technicians. A gentleman was there who asked me some questions. Who was I? Did I know how to use the software? Was I logged in to the Skype chat, and did I need any help?
After a brief orientation, I left my charging platform and trundled out into the world. I moved cautiously at first – I needed to get my bearings – but was soon on my way. A few turns and I found the Micron booth. This is a great start; I have friends there.
The Micron folks are great people and all of my nervousness about this new mode of interaction faded away as I talked to them. There was some oohing and aahing about the novelty of the telepresence unit, but after a few seconds the robot, the UI, my computer screen... it all just disappeared. I was there, talking to my friends, and it felt as real to me as being there in person.
Later:
Watching her navigate between people I began to notice a distinct difference in how she was treated versus how I was treated. When Phoummala wanted to go somewhere she simply went there. People got out of her way. When I wanted to go somewhere, people did not move to let me through.
People rarely deliberately stepped in front of Phoummala. If they saw she was headed in a given direction, they'd generally let her pass before continuing on. The opposite was true of me; as a telepresence unit, they expected that I would stop to let them pass. I wasn't human, you see, so it was perfectly OK to throw one's self into my path and expect me to react in time.
As this technology is used more often, will we treat the 'bots as we would the humans riding them?
[Editor's note: This link is at the bottom of the article and I believe is the unit they were using]
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday December 12 2016, @09:18PM
It used to be that conferences and conventions were the sort of thing where your company or organization would usually *want* a real person there to represent them. It's not always just about you collecting information, or you getting to know presenters, it can be about THEM getting to know YOU. If you are lucky you might even have a chance to meet with the bigwigs and shake their hand. Good luck doing that from behind a screen.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday December 12 2016, @09:26PM
Depends on who you are. If you are nobody, like most of us, then, sure, being physically present is an advantage over faces on flatscreens and wheels.
If the Dalai Lama decided to attend a conference (any conference, but I'm thinking specifically of when he came to Neuroscience in 2005), he could do it by robot telepresence, save millions in security costs, days of personal travel, and still draw huge crowds.
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