On the Double

We need to get a full set of those for the FWW Office. Would make our conference calls much more productive, I'm sure.
 
Our Double showed up today. We're going to test it out, but I think they plan to allow remote scientist to drop in to collaborate in the labs here.

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It uses an ipad to communicate with the remote user. The ipad is mounted upside down and has a mirror on the back to use the rear camera for looking down where it's going in tight spaces. It navigates surprisingly well, but we're going to have to get IT to work on the wifi network. When it changes between access points it drops connection. That or we'll put an ipad on it with 4G Cellular access.
 
That's pretty cool. It would take some getting used to, though. Having a roving iPad on a Stick watching over my shoulder at work would be a little strange. Especially with tasers. :D
 
all I can picture is some poor schmuck on an assembly line having his chops busted by some manager who is too lazy to get down there and talk to the guy in person :crazy:

It sure would be a benefit to handicapped kids who can't get to a classroom though :thumb:
 
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That's a lot cheaper than the robots we use in the hospital!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
 
Well, we gave it a good test today. We hosted a local user group meeting with about 40 attendees. Our remote developer in Colorado sat in and was able to participate, even rolled around and talked shop with a few developers that attended. He then joined us in our weekly developer meeting. It was actually a pretty positive meeting. Typically he's on a phone call, but he can't see all of the interaction we have as a group, which sometimes involves a lot drawing on the whiteboard and such. Only dropped his connection once, but was able to get him back on in a few minutes. Only real issue we have is our wifi access points, but they will be updating the whole institute after the first of the year. The battery life at this point was about 7 hours after a full charge. It's not smart enough to go find it's charging port, but luckily it's light enough to carry with one hand if need be.

We even dressed it up for the meeting...
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I'm going to see if I can get work to buy one of these for me. It would be fun to roam the halls pestering folks.
 
This is an amazing use of technology. What it does to the cost benefit ratio of applying this to remote education of all sorts is just amazing. My mind boggles at the application. I cannot help thinking of the people in Africa and how this could open up all sorts of doors to experts being able to share expertise with many without leaving where they are located.

The only problem I see has nothing to do with the device but has to do with the telecommunications infrastructure. Broadband is a very big issue and a costly one. Hopefully cellular data is the solution here with LTE etc. There is no way there is the economic ability for places like Africa to run fibre and get a payback on that kind of infrastructure. So its going to have to be cellular data and solar powered stations. My ideal job at this stage in my life would be getting involved in rolling out something like this to connect places in Africa (note not South Africa) with experts in all sorts of fields. The impact could be amazing.

Imagine one of these being able to be taken to a rural village. Now imagine a agricultural expert being able to see the crop and interact with the farmer as to what has to be done and be able to see first hand what the terrain etc is like and the conditions and come up with a solution that fits the circumstances. Couple that with a few drones (not the military type ;) and you change the lives of millions.

Darren what sort of cost are these units. Ball park range is all I am after.
 
Darren what sort of cost are these units. Ball park range is all I am after.

The base robotic unit is $2,499, but you'll need at least one iPad, we're currently running a gen 4 wifi version. The controlling side can either use iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or a Chrome browser with the extension installed (PC or Mac with a web cam). We did test it using and LTE hotspot on a phone for it's wifi connection, for about a 10 minute run it ate up about 70 MB's in bandwith, so it will require a decent pipe for communication.

For our institute it will allow remote scientists to collaborate and teach, give accessibility to those that cannot travel, and allow for virtual tours.
 
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