Robots Invade Your Personal Space

If you have ever had to complete a task such as building a LEGO model over a remote connection, you will know that the challenges are like an absurd grade school group project. The person giving directions often has trouble describing what they are thinking, and the person doing the work has trouble interpreting what the instructor wants. “Turn the blue block over. No, only half way. Go back. Now turn it. No, the other way. NO! Not clockwise, downward. That’s Upward! Geez. Are you even listening‽” Good times.

While you may not be in this situation every day, the Keio University of Japan has an intuitive way to give instructors a way to physically interact with an instructee through a Moore/Swayze experience. The instructor has a camera in typical pirate parrot placement over the shoulder. Two arms are controlled by the instructor who can see through stereoscopic cameras to have a first-person view from across the globe. This natural way to interact with the user’s environment allows muscle memory to pass from the instructor to the wearer.

For some of the other styles of telepresence, see this deep-sea bot and a cylindrical screen that looks like someone is beaming up directly from the holodeck.

13 thoughts on “Robots Invade Your Personal Space

  1. The first paragraph describes exactly what design engineers go through daily when speaking with sales/marketing/management when working on new product concepts. Geeez, do you work here? Nightmares!

    Does anyone else think that a remotely operated second set of hands is creepy or is it just me? You have to really TRUST the person on the other end…..

  2. Describing rotation directions in 3D is easy if you think outside the box. Pedal your bike forwards/backwards, stir your coffee clockwise/anticlockwise, and volume up/volume down… or wax on/wax off :)

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