Video: A Shoulder-Mounted, Humanoid Telepresence 'Bot, for Easy Tele-Dating

By Clay Dillow Posted 03.23.2011 at 4:00 pm 5 Comments

TEROOS TEROOS

Most telepresence robots are geared toward providing the user with a remote presence in the workplace or home. TEROOS, a shoulder-mounted telepresence robot developed by researchers at Keio University and elsewhere in Japan, is making telepresence more of a social experience.

Video chat, the robots creators say, is great for stationary exchanges between two people, but what if you want to do some long-distance antiquing or go on a long-distance date? “With this system, the person who's going out carries an avatar on their shoulder, so the other person can operate the avatar to look around freely,” the demonstrator explains in the video below. “This can provide an experience just like going shopping or having a date with the other person.”

See, you carry TEROOS around on your shoulder but someone else controls it, using its built-in camera, microphone, and speaker to look around and communicate with the wearer. Communications and commands are relayed via a smartphone, which is passed to TEROOS via Bluetooth. Skype handles the audio/video exchange between TEROOS and its remote operator.

We’re not exactly sold on the dating aspect, even if some effort has been taken to make the eyes lifelike (the operator can change the “facial expression” by clicking on a variety of expressions in the control software). Besides, what couple wants to feel like they are attached at the shoulder? Still, it’s a neat little robot and could provide a nice social outlet for those with limited mobility.

[DigInfo via io9

]

Previous Article: New Mobile App Builds Realistic 3-D Models From Cell Phone Camera Snapshots

Next Article: For the First Time, Satellites Track a Ballistic Missile Through All Phases of Flight

5 Comments

Link to this comment

paulcrosoft

03/23/11 at 5:47 pm

My first thought was, there's no way this is "just like ... having a a date with [a] person," as the robot researcher claimed. It would be awkward, seem mechanical, and there'd be no chance of physical affection. But I guess that actually might be just like a date for a robot researcher.

Link to this comment

cholin3947

03/23/11 at 9:07 pm

First thought; make it look like a parrot or a monkey.

Second though; This could be very useful for EMTs or field medics that need to communicate with a doctor. For this application they could lose the goofy eyes.

Link to this comment

B.V.

03/24/11 at 3:33 pm

yeah that thing looks retarded...

It's not even close to a real date, not only for the obvious reasons, but because only ONE of the people can be "out"--the other one is glued to their computer watching a video and telling the robot to wink it's eyes or whatever.

So... one person watches a video on skype, the other person sits in a restaurant and eats with a robot... FUN! (not)

The guy wearing the robot doesn't get anything out of the equation...

Link to this comment

El Guapo

03/26/11 at 1:10 pm

I want what that robot has been smoking.

Popular Tags

Technology

All Tags All Photos All Videos

Technology

+ More Photo Galleries

June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.