From: hal@finney.org
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 11:03:07 MDT
Nick writes,
> I'm planning to talk about virtual reality: how teleworking may become
> popular when VR gets good enough that you can get those social
> interactions with office mates that seem to be so essential. When that
> stage is reached (I'm reckon this could implemented on a large scale in
> about fifteen years) then there seems to be no reason why anybody who
> works only with information would need to be physically present in the
> office. Life guards on beaches etc. are a different matter, since it is
> doubtful that robots will be good enough and cheap enough to replace
> manual labour within that time scale.
We had an interesting thread here a few days ago about using tele-operated
robots for vacation or business purposes. Combining your VR at work
idea suggests wheeled robots roaming the halls, a monitor on the front
with your smiling face in place, camera mounted so that it can interact
with people and it's just like being there. You could go to meetings,
and the table would have some chairs and some spaces for the wheeled
robots to roll up to. Maybe you could even put an arm on the robot and
it could carry a coffee cup or shake hands with important clients.
See http://www.irobot.com for something that could evolve into this. It's
got the wheels, it's got the camera (with a wireless webcam interface).
Just add a monitor or at least a speaker so you can talk through it
(you could paste your picture on the front) and you're all set. Maybe
just a cell phone with a speaker phone attachment?
I might even get one and try to get the office up in SJ to let it wander
around. The biggest problem would be getting the IS department to open
up the corporate firewall for the webcam.
Hal
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