Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 1:31 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote: > I guess it is mainly the novelty of it that creeps me out. It's called the uncanny valley: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
Bob Cook wrote: Privacy is nil in this day and age of snooping. Until Google or someone > else get a good encryption scheme working it won't catch on. NSA and > others like it are always a step ahead: For me that is the creepiest. > Privacy is indeed a thing of the past. I find this bothers me less than I anticipated it would, when the trend began 30 years ago. (I saw it coming.) As I see it, we are back to the world of the 19th century when mobility was lower and most people lived in towns where everyone knew everyone else's business. There was much less privacy then, especially in the U.S. Europeans visiting American in the 18th and 19th century remarked that Americans ask nosy questions and seem to have no regard for privacy. The past wasn't so bad. My wife grew up in a small rural town on an island, somewhat behind the times. They had no off-island telephone service until 1968. She came out okay. Young people growing up in today's Internet-Google fishbowl take it in stride. Looking back, the golden age of privacy was probably in the 1920s. That was after the automobile gave people tremendous mobility, but before modern radio, telephones, police surveillance, wiretapping, fingerprint databases, punch card databases for Social Security and the draft, and other modern technology began keeping track of people. Gangsters were able to evade the law more easily than now. The autobiographical books by Henry Miller describe a lifestyle more free, hedonistic and downright destructive than most people could get away with now. He got mad at an employer or a landlord at one point. He invited in some local kids and they spent the afternoon trashing the apartment to an extent that would certainly make the local news nowadays, and trigger a nationwide manhunt. They broke up the furniture, mattresses and feather pillows, and threw paint everywhere, as I recall. Just for the fun of it. The mayhem in "Boardwalk Empire" is greatly exaggerated but it was somewhat like that. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
Privacy is nil in this day and age of snooping. Until Google or someone else get a good encryption scheme working it won't catch on. NSA and others like it are always a step ahead: For me that is the creepiest. Bob - Original Message - From: Jed Rothwell To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 10:31 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot Here is yet another virtual presence robot demo, even creepier than the others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtOvY3p0stI I guess it is mainly the novelty of it that creeps me out. People are usually afraid of novelty, even me. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
Here is yet another virtual presence robot demo, even creepier than the others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtOvY3p0stI I guess it is mainly the novelty of it that creeps me out. People are usually afraid of novelty, even me. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 3:36 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote: > Long predicted in sci fi, there are now robots that roam around corporations > and factories with hi-def video monitors giving people "virtual presence." > Yes, it as creepy as you imagined. See the video on this page. It sort of > reminds me of someone in an electric wheelchair. TED interviewed Edward Snowden on such a device: http://www.ted.com/talks/edward_snowden_here_s_how_we_take_back_the_internet
Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
Not impressed, just stick gum on the video camera :) On Sunday, April 27, 2014, Jed Rothwell wrote: > Oh so 21st century! See: > > > http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brand_Ava%20500 > > Long predicted in sci fi, there are now robots that roam around > corporations and factories with hi-def video monitors giving people > "virtual presence." Yes, it as creepy as you imagined. See the video on > this page. It sort of reminds me of someone in an electric wheelchair. > > Anything which reduces coach-fare business trips is a good thing as far as > I am concerned. > > These things cost $65,000 each so they will not be widespread overnight. > > Someday there will be a meeting at which everyone attending is embodied by > one of these things. People will wonder why they did not simply make it a > fully electronic. My guess is that these things will never be widespread > for use in offices. They are an interim solution halfway between today's > real office and a fully virtual "office" which consists only of people in > individual offices either at home or in rented satellite office space. > > For use in factories, laboratories, farms, indoor farms, and other places > where there are structures, machines and objects you need to deal with, > these machines may be the wave of the future. > > - Jed > >
Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 12:36 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote: Someday there will be a meeting at which everyone attending is embodied by > one of these things. People will wonder why they did not simply make it a > fully electronic. My guess is that these things will never be widespread > for use in offices. > There is a simpler version of one of these at my work: http://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/double-by-double-robotics-wheels-for-your-ipad-video There is an office in Toronto, and some of the people there were piloting the thing around the main office, in San Francisco. The face of the person operating the device appears in the screen at the top (which is simple iPad). It is uncanny how much the robot makes it seem like the person is actually there, in the office. We also make a lot of use of videoconferencing, which has a similar effect. The robot in the link above is clever, but don't try to play a prank on the operator by lifting it up while it's moving. The operator will not know what has caused the loss of control and will continue to apply power, and the wheel will spin even faster. When you set it back on the ground the wheel will suddenly gain traction, and the top will flip down against any sharp edge nearby. We have cracked at least one iPad screen that way. Eric
[Vo]:OFF TOPIC iRobot Ava 500 virtual presence robot
Oh so 21st century! See: http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brand_Ava%20500 Long predicted in sci fi, there are now robots that roam around corporations and factories with hi-def video monitors giving people "virtual presence." Yes, it as creepy as you imagined. See the video on this page. It sort of reminds me of someone in an electric wheelchair. Anything which reduces coach-fare business trips is a good thing as far as I am concerned. These things cost $65,000 each so they will not be widespread overnight. Someday there will be a meeting at which everyone attending is embodied by one of these things. People will wonder why they did not simply make it a fully electronic. My guess is that these things will never be widespread for use in offices. They are an interim solution halfway between today's real office and a fully virtual "office" which consists only of people in individual offices either at home or in rented satellite office space. For use in factories, laboratories, farms, indoor farms, and other places where there are structures, machines and objects you need to deal with, these machines may be the wave of the future. - Jed
