Trevor Blackwell, Anybot CEO and Founder explains telepresence robot
Visit Anybot headquarters in Mountain View and you’ll most likely be greeted by a pleasant-looking robot with an even more pleasant voice that actually belongs to Suzanne, who is talking to you from her house. The Anybot telepresence robot enables her to get her job done (quite nicely thank you very much) as executive assistant at the robotics company, while she gets to stay home and take care of her kids.
Wait, before you call this high tech outsourcing…consider its more like remotesourcing as these robots are avatars for real people. These robots are actually enabling careers for everyone from execs to stay-at-home moms who want to make their professional presence known, but can’t necessarily deal with daily commutes or expensive long flights.
From the Jetsons to Caprica, robots have always stimulated our imagination. Back in 2003, we hosted a Robot Petting Zoo featuring VIA-based robots at Lunch at Piero’s which was covered by CNN, and other major media during COMDEX. A couple of weeks ago at a CEA conference, we were pleased to see the Anybot making its debut on the i-stage, a platform for emerging products hosted by International CES as of the finalists vying for a $40,000 grand prize. Continue Reading »
You wouldn’t think there was a recession going on, judging by the strong attendance at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose this week. Engineers and designers are telling us that they are using this time to find the next important technology to build devices that will be up and ready for sale by the time the economy gets back on its feet, which some of the show-goers are pegging at mid 2010.
Clearly everyone wants more smarts in their devices. Cars will be ever richer with multimedia and GPS OEM and aftermarket technology. Printers will have more smarts built into them. Medical devices will become more consumer-friendly. Factory automation will become increasingly sophisticated, run by small, rugged x86-based technology. Alp Sezen of VIA Embedded talks about the x86-based small form factor boards, digital signage and ruggedized systems that the company showed at its booth.
And what do engineers do when they want to have fun? Check out this air hockey-playing robot on the show floor of Embedded Systems Conference. Built by Nuvation for exhibitor Freescale, the clicking of the hockey puck could be heard from the moment the show floor opened until it closed.
Ever wonder what’s inside the countless cool (and cool-running) embedded devices that you find in home servers, robots, digital signage, entertainment devices and everything from elevators to factory automation? At Lunch@Piero’s during CES, Nathan Pham of the pioneering division of VIA that brought you Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX and even Pico-ITX boards and the popular ARTiGO series of builder kits gave reporters a look at the latest innovations based on the VIA embedded platform. VIA Embedded also showed the new ARTiGO A2000 barebone storage system and an innovative home server set-up using the touch-screen VIPRO demonstrating how the digital lifestyle is coming to a home near you. http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded
