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posted by janrinok on Friday March 09 2018, @07:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the been-around-for-years dept.

Has Facebook infiltrated your life? Wait until a Facebook robot starts following you from room to room. A patent for a self-balancing robot granted to the company Tuesday shows a bot resembling a standard telepresence robot with a screen, camera and microphone.

The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but the drawings and detailed description of the little guy suggest Facebook could be looking to expand its videoconferencing capabilities with a device that adds a more human touch to long-distance electronic communications. Or takes photos of your dog and posts them to Instagram. Or just makes it easier for Mark Zuckerberg to watch you do household chores.

The patent application, filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in July 2015, presents a rolling robot that melds the advantages of two-wheeled self-balancing bots with those of their three- and four-wheeled cousins.

The patent lists Scott Wiley as the robot's inventor, and CNN, which spotted the patent, describes Wiley as a Facebook employee who previously worked at a telepresence robotics company.

[...] "Automated cameramen and sports commentators will play an important part in increasing people's ability to capture and tell stories," Atkeson told CNN. "Imagine being a proud parent, coach, or player, and being able to televise high school sports."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @03:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @03:27PM (#650015)

    Has Facebook infiltrated your life?

    Nope...

    Wait until a Facebook robot starts following you from room to room.

    That will be fun....for the furry overlords and their dog lieutenants. If one ever managed to make it over the doorstep, I'd estimate such a device's lifespan in this household to be less than an hour thanks to the destructive power of our furry overlord clowder alone, factor in the dogs, 10-15 minutes...

    Never, never run a server without side panels where a Tomcat can get to it [yadi.sk]
    What happens when dogs decide the tug-of-war rope isn't crunchy enough for their current game [yadi.sk]

    Destructive little fsckwits, wouldn't be without them though...no robot would be safe in this house, well, I'll qualify that a bit, no robot that couldn't operate a can opener would be safe...