Virtual doormen becoming more ubiquitous

Amazingly enough, virtual doormen aren't exactly new, but it seems that they're becoming entirely more ubiquitous (and accepted) in today's society. Increasingly, more and more apartment dwellers are coming home to voices in the wall rather than a physical life form, but virtual doormen can still let tenants into their room, allow deliveries to be made and keep disgruntled in-laws out. As you'd expect, these firms rely primarily on an internet connection, a webcam and a couple of microphones, and while typical services can range from "$10,000 to $70,000 for installation and $6,000 to $30,000 in annual maintenance," that still beats the $250,000 or so it would purportedly take for a small building to be staffed with full-time, on-site doormen. The next evolutionary step? Androids answering the buzz, and subsequent hacks to gain entry into any room you please.

[Via ChipChick]

[Invisiblemoose @ Dec 29th 2007 1:57AM]

Honestly, I don't think I'd want to stay at place that couldn't splurge for real employees...

[thethirdmoose @ Dec 29th 2007 2:09AM]

What if you don't want to pay for real doormen?

[Invisiblemoose @ Dec 29th 2007 2:28AM]

I do... I do want to pay for a real doorman. That's my point. It's worth it to me. We have the technological potential to automate most of the simple jobs in the world. In the future, nearly all jobs could be done without people.

But then what would be the point of people? Are we obsolete? Should we be phased out? Or should we be lined up in huge lines of capsules, eternally kept alive in dream state, with the world run by machines?

[johnnychipface @ Dec 29th 2007 4:07AM]

I can see where you're coming from; I've been to a few supermarkets with self service supermarkets and I don't really like them (pointless anyway since some people take 10 minutes to work out what's going on and they still have to pay people to stand and watch them).

[Drkmstr104 @ Dec 29th 2007 2:54AM]

O_o if my last name were "Bates" , I would hire a butler to say , "Welcome home, Master Bates!"

A virtual doorman voice would become irritating after a while.

*Stephen Hawking's voice* "Welcome home, Master Bates."

[NovaLand @ Dec 29th 2007 3:07AM]

I'd settle for Douglas Fargos female-inspired voice

[John M @ Dec 29th 2007 3:25AM]

Sorry but a disembodied voice isn't even close to the same thing that the personal relationship that you form with your doorman, there is no way that I would ever come close to comparing the smiling face that greeted me tonight when I came home to an anonymous voice over a speaker.

[johnnychipface @ Dec 29th 2007 4:09AM]

Won't be long before computers have personalities (some pc's already seem to have them) and can form relationships though (I give it 2 to 2000 years).

[601210 @ Dec 29th 2007 4:20AM]

@johnnychipface

Personality doesn't equal personal relations. Normal people can't have the same relationships with computers because a computer doesn't have a life. It is a bunch of electronic parts that only exist for a certain purpose. You can't invite a computer over for dinner. You can't give it a Christmas present.

[ocelot67 @ Dec 29th 2007 4:34AM]

If ubiquitous means existing or being everywhere, how can something be "more" ubiquitous?

[mkhall @ Dec 29th 2007 10:46AM]

Thank you. I wanted to say the same thing, but was hoping someone else would point it out first.

[Loopy @ Dec 29th 2007 5:25AM]

So this is kind of like the Lisa Server project Scrs is making? I think there concept is much much better than this.

[Loopy @ Dec 29th 2007 5:27AM]

Ahh dummy me, Forgot the link... http://logic-robotics.com/LisaServer.aspx

[Paul Reimann @ Dec 29th 2007 8:29AM]

Looks like another job oppurtunity for Trannies.

[Wwhat @ Dec 29th 2007 10:21AM]

Wow, a doorman makes $684 a day? or $20,833 a month? who knew... apart from engadget staff that is.

[NovaLand @ Dec 29th 2007 10:40AM]

There's a huge difference between what one is making in salary and what the service costs the company. Not only should u pay for the equipment (uniform, etc), but also the need for the service 24h/day and a backup somehow, since humans tend to get sick and have vacation. If you have ever had a job, u know that labour is the most expensive costs in almost all cases, except perhaps in [insert any third world country here].

[BigD145 @ Dec 29th 2007 3:54PM]

I foresee many layoffs and a steep decline in the pay of doormen to match these systems.

[Wwhat @ Dec 29th 2007 6:24PM]

20 grand a month... doorman..

[captainnoah @ Jan 11th 2008 9:36PM]

Since reading about this in the NY Times, I actually met someone that lives in a building that has a Virtual Doorman. I also did some research on the two companies that were mentioned in the article and think I can explain what the product actually does.

Basically the service is aimed at smaller buildings. The engadget quote of 250k is for a full time doorman service, which probably consists of 4 doormen's salaries, plus the costs of their benefits. There's a doorman union (32BJ) that a lot of buildings have doormen from, so the pay is probably standardized to some level although I couldn't find numbers on it. My building is 220 units, so we can afford the cost of the full time doormen, live in super, and porters. Smaller buildings like the walk ups that are being converted to luxury condos only have 10 units or so. Take the 250k and divide by 10 and a doorman would cost each unit 25k a year on top of the other building maintenance charges. I guess the aim is to add doorman "services" to smaller buildings that would typically go doormanless simply because of their size. Additionally, residents save by not tipping their doormen during the holidays. I recently dropped close to $1000 on holiday tips for my building's staff of 8.

As far as the service goes, the building is always locked and residents use a card key system to get in. When they have a delivery, the delivery person uses the intercom and the tenant buzzes them in if they are home to do so. If they aren't home, the delivery person uses the virtual doorman buzzer and then interacts with a live person in a remote monitoring center who decides whether or not to let the person into the building. The guy I talked to seemed to like it and had said that he didn't have any problems getting furniture delivered when he moved in (the building was new so I imagine that it was common at the time to have furniture deliveries). He said his lobby has a big package room where the deliveries get placed and that the virtual doorman can unlock that door as well.

I guess the whole idea is pretty cool. It basically seems like a "doorman timeshare" sort of system where you're only paying for a doorman when you need one. I didn't ask how much the service cost or what the billing plan was like (whether it was a flat monthly fee, or incremental billing like cell phone minutes). I've come back late at night to catch my doorman asleep at the desk, so I'm not sure that he's the best security money can buy, but at the same time, I know that if I was in danger, I could run into the building and a live person would be there to assist me and call for help if necessary. In the end it all comes down to what you can afford and what you can live with (or can't live without).

[captainnoah @ Jan 11th 2008 9:47PM]

I forgot to include the links to the two companies that provide virtual doorman service. They're both based in NYC. Looks like the Virtual Service one might be a bit more established, but their company website doesn't look as good as the virtual doorman one.

www.virtualdoorman.com
www.cyberdoorman.com