Summer 2013 1
ROBOTIC TELEPRESENCE
TALE OF THE TAPE
YOUR GUIDE TO VISUAL COLLABORATIONSUMMER 2013
•
THE INTER-COMPANY VIDEO ISSUE
PLUS:
VISUAL COLLABORATION FOR AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND SCRUM • WEBRTC REALITY CHECK
Deloitte’s
Jerome Oglesby
(left) and
Aaron Roe
(right) are connecting the firm to 185 companies a month, generating revenue, saving clients money, and making Deloitte’s expertise available globally.
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I
n the past ew years, the telepresence robotics market has exploded with a number o new offerings that range rom simple solutions allowing participants to remotely pan and tilt video-enabled tablets or camera-equipped arms to an increasing number o ull-sized devices complete with remote navigation capabilities, multiple cameras or navigation and conversation, multiple Wi-Fi radios or uninterrupted connectivity and various other advanced eatures.Many companies and individuals love the concept and get the value o robotic telepresence. With traditional videoconerencing, the remote person’s viewpoint is limited to wherever the camera happens to be located in the room (wall mount, cabinet top, etc.) and the local participants find themselves interacting with a large screen that may or may not be collocated with the camera. In robotic telepresence, the remote person is able to engage with local participants as i they are physically located at the point o the device. Since the point-o-view o both parties converge on the same device, a better engagement results. And since the device can move around, the remote people are able to move themselves to better locations or situations, creating a much better engagement with other locals outside the teleconerence space. In the simplest terms, the act that you can look or even move around the room increases the eeling o “being there.” Te technology includes a number o other non-intuitive benefits, such as allowing or random co-worker interactions that lead to serendipitous brainstorming instead o scheduled videoconerences that limit the dialogue to the meeting agenda. People tend to accept remote workers so readily as “present” that they can identiy coworkers by the way they pilot the device around the office, even i you can’t see their ace on the screen.
MARKET BURDENS AND TECHNOLOGY HURDLES
Te robot market has proven to be trickier than expected. Despite the obvious benefits and appeal, a ew pockets o market resistance must be overcome beore we can see significant adoption. Tese pockets o resistance include both market perception issues and actual design challenges. It takes a leap o aith to be an early adopter o new technology. Market perception issues are expected with many new technologies, and despite our amiliarity with Hollywood robots, it’s still unusual to see one in the workplace. Despite the incredibly positive eedback rom existing device owners, we are still primarily in that early adopter phase.Also, Hollywood has created extremely unair expectations, resulting in possible disappointment when viewing the actual options. As cool as they are, today’s telepresence systems still don’t compare to C3P0 or the mechanisms rom Surrogates. It’s extremely difficult to design a visually appealing and ully unctional device while keeping its costs within an acceptable range or a small business collaboration tool.
Telepresence robotics, remote presence, virtual presence - these terms describe technologies that allow a remote operator to control a robotic platform from afar and interact with remote participants using video.
ROBOTIC TELEPRESENCE
State of the Industry
2 0 1 3
The Double Robot uses an iP
ad as the display and video codec.
Summer 2013 51
We also have actual technical and design challenges to overcome. Te most obvious example is the elevator problem. How can you navigate your device rom one floor to the next i it loses Wi-Fi and disconnects rom the remote user in the elevator? Another challenge is the act that driving the device eventually stops being un and becomes a bit o a chore. While driving it around a classroom to get a good view o the teacher isn’t a problem, guiding it through multiple hallways while dodging people and obstacles is another story. Eventually, sel-navigating systems should make this a non-issue.Other adoption blockers include potential network requirements. With any new video enabled deployment, the potential or increased, bandwidth-intensive video traffic must be provisioned or and network security must be maintained. Additionally, a different type o security concern must be addressed or a device with electronic eyes and ears that can roam the building. Te market will have to work hard to assure consumers that these devices can be deployed securely with proper authentication and controls.On a positive note, we expect robotic telepresence to get some boost rom the act that videoconerencing, in general, is finally achieving the massive growth we have long anticipated. At its core, robotic telepresence is simply another use case or videoconerencing. As VC becomes more and more ubiquitous, the benefits o VC applications such as robotic telepresence should become more understandable and marketable.
TELEPRESENCE ROBOTICS: ELEMENTS AND FEATURES
Tose interested in implementing robotic telepresence as a part o their collaboration environment should careully consider which eature sets match your priorities, and choose a vendor accordingly. While no two devices in this field are the same, all share several common elements.
Presence:
Tere are two aspects o presence to address here. First, it’s important to provide a quality camera so that the remote user can truly see and engage with the local participants. It’s equally important to represent the remote user with as much fidelity as possible. Tis requirement drives a need or a display that aithully represents the user’s visage to remote participants. In act, some people may be uncomortable with the idea o a monitor-less robot, considering it to be quite intrusive and spy-like. Te monitor immediately identifies the remote user and osters a true ace-to-ace experience. Monitor sizes and configurations vary greatly, so choose based on your needs and preerences.
Height:
Like people, robots come in all shapes and sizes. Some are suited or a sit down, across-the-table meeting, others are approximately standing height, while some have variable heights that may be adjustable locally or by the remote user. Again, your needs may vary.
Navigation:
Navigating a device can be tricky. While most systems come with a airly intuitive app or remote users, the real issue is the remote user’s point-o-view. Without
The Revolve Robotics Kubi holds a video-enabled tablet or smartphone that can be controlled by a remote
participant for a more fluid and natural video call.