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."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @12:39PM (1 child)
> Or just makes it easier for Mark Zuckerberg to watch you do household chores.
Or just makes it easier for Mark Zuckerberg to watch you do household chores in the nude.
FTFY
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 09 2018, @06:37PM
Mr Zuckerberg, tear down this wall ! There is no reason the whole world, starting with your neighbors, should not know every second of your life!
What do you mean, no ? No glass walls for everyone? True, true, "That data is valuable and shouldn't be free to our customers".
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday March 09 2018, @12:54PM (2 children)
( whatever ) on THE INTERNET.
now its...
( whatever ) on A SEGWAY.
How about
Pizza Delivery on a SEGWAY?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by rumata on Saturday March 10 2018, @02:18AM (1 child)
Been done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRFPc2iE1MQ&feature=youtu.be&t=1798 [youtube.com], no patent for you :-p.
Cheers,
Michael
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @04:37AM
Hehe... good try I suppose.
To me this "patenting the obvious" thing has nothing to do with innovation... and everything to do about using LAW to keep other people from competing with you.
Something Americans call "free" enterprise.
Congressionally-Assised Hit-Man service.
(Score: 1) by noneof_theabove on Friday March 09 2018, @12:58PM (1 child)
no way.
google > self balancing robot
hundreds using arduino.
Also TED has one that balances and dances on a ball [3-axis drive]
called a "ball-bot", named Rezero. Date July 2011
https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_fankhauser_meet_rezero_the_dancing_ballbot [ted.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday March 10 2018, @04:41AM
The Americanized version... sure the mechanism is prior art.. but apparently what they patented was putting a camera, display, and two way comms on the thing.
The self-balancing motorized broomstick table was a standard fare of control system theory at University. In my time, it was analog computers. An EAI-580 to be exact.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @02:35PM
It looks like you're trying to build Clippy!
Would you like help with that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @03:27PM
Nope...
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...