Telecomunicator T1 Lets You See What It Sees
Writing by Greg Intermaggio on Friday, 19 of February , 2010 at 3:36 am
The Telecomunicator T1 is a two-stage robot designed by Telerobotics Laboratory in Japan. The purpose of the robot is to allow remote viewing and contact from a human-like form. In other words, if you need to be in a press conference in, oh, let’s say Zimbabwe, then with the help this awesome ‘bot, you can save yourself a frisking by that burly TSA guy at the airport.
The idea is simple, and the robot works in two stages:
Stage one is the robot itself, which can be worn by the poor Zimbabwean schmuck you coerce into going to the press conference on your behalf. The robot is literally “worn” like a backpack. The ‘bot is equipped with two cameras to provide a wide peripheral span, as well as servos to control the angle of the cameras, and sensors that detect movement of the carrier, and compensate for it. In other words, when that Zimbabwean turns around to grab a soda, the camera angle doesn’t change from your perspective.
Stage two is the tele-control assembly. This is what you’d be dealing with back at home. Basically, it’s VR (Virtual Reality) goggles coupled with a handful of sensors so that when you turn your head, the robot does as well, meaning that you control what you see, even in Zimbabwe!
The bot itself has a few other nifty features, the coolest one being that it looks human-like, or at least robot-human-like, so laypeople can recognize where to look if they want to make eye contact with the operator. It also has a microphone and speakers built in, so you can hear and speak remotely. Finally, the Telecomunicator T1 has a cute little arm that can wave (see 49 seconds into the video). This is great news for geeks everywhere- now we can get a girls attention… even in Zimbabwe!
[ Telerobotics Laboratory ] VIA [ Plastic Pals ]
Comments (5)
Category: Androids
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Comment by Barrett Ames
Made Friday, 19 of February , 2010 at 7:34 am
“then with the help you this awesome ‘bot”
then with the help of this awesome ‘bot ?
Comment by Intermaggio
Made Friday, 19 of February , 2010 at 8:46 am
Not sure I understand what you’re asking…
Comment by Intermaggio
Made Friday, 19 of February , 2010 at 10:44 am
Nevermind- my apologies for the (now fixed) grammatical error :)
Comment by quantum_flux
Made Monday, 11 of October , 2010 at 2:42 pm
that poor shmuck, rofl
Comment by google
Made Wednesday, 24 of August , 2011 at 9:12 pm
I liked your article is an interesting technology
thanks to google I found you
