telepresence
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iRobot debuts ConnectR and Looj home bots
iRobot's mission to create the "robot home" got a whole lot more fleshed out this afternoon at the company's DigitalLife keynote. The general idea is to get usable tech into any and every home -- not just for the nerds, not like the Jetsons. "A little boring, but fantastically useful robots." Obviously iRobot has been attempting this a while with its Roomba and related lines, but the new ConnectR and Looj bots really flesh out that vision. On the boring end of things, the Looj is a remote-controlled bot that can clean up to 60 feet of gutter in 10 minutes. It rolls through your gutter tank-style and spits out the debris, and then rolls back to you. It's waterproof for easy cleaning, and is available today for $99. The ConnectR takes a whole new angle for iRobot, offering telepresence instead of the usual drudgery removal. You can "virtually visit" friends and family by controlling the WiFi-connected bot remotely, with live video, audio, controls and sensor data. The camera tilts and zooms, and has a zoom mode high resolution enough for reading text. You can transmit your voice through the bot, and control an LED light to convey mood. ConnectR launches next year for $499, and will be available in a pilot program for $199 to select beta-testing users.%Gallery-7865%
Polycom's HDX 4000 HD video conferencing system
We weren't exactly enthralled with Polycom's other all-in-one video conferencing machine, but a lot can change in three years. The newly revamped iteration, dubbed the HDX 4000, claims to be the "first executive desktop video system with HD voice, video, and content sharing." Designed to play nice with most standards-based, IP video conferencing systems, this unit sports a 20-inch widescreen display, built-in HD camera with pan-tilt-zoom capability, dual HDX microphones, speakers and subwoofer, an HDX video conferencing codec, and a stand with an integrated keypad that "allows users to dial or answer video calls just like a telephone." Depending on bandwidth, this system enables you to watch and send 720p content at 30fps (or 480p if you snag the HDX 4001), and while you aren't likely to justify this purchase for your home, $7,999 isn't a whole lot to ask when sprucing up the corporate boardroom.[Image courtesy of TechFest]
Cisco's TelePresence Meeting does video meetings in ultra-HD
Just because meetings are boring doesn't mean they have to be low-res as well. Cisco's new TelePresence Meeting technology brings utter pixel overkill to the videoconferencing game with the new TelePresence 3000, which sports three 1080p flat panels on each end for use by up to 12 suits at a time. There's also a "low-end" TelePresence 1000 version, which just uses a single 1080p set on each end. The TelePresence 3000 setup includes special tables, microphone-speakers, cameras and lighting, but it'll cost you a cool $299k when it's released this December. Apparently that's a real bargain compared to HP's "Halo" setup, which is closing in on half a mil and requires $18k a month for service (Sony has 'em both beat with their $42k IPELA system), but it's still abundantly clear that TelePresence won't be making it into all but the ritziest board rooms. Luckily, that TP 1000 goes for a mere $79k, and neither system requires a monthly service fee -- though the 10 gigabit per second minimum bandwidth required is probably going to cost you $3-5k monthly per connected room. Still, all of this TelePresence action from Cisco is a sign of things to come, since the networking behemoth is slowly moving into the media and consumer spaces. They've got their sights set on consumer set-top boxes, so grandma can get her TelePresence on, and expect the videoconferencing industry to generate $1 billion in annual revenue before 2011. We're a bit skeptical, but with prices like these, at least they won't need to ship many widgets to hit that target.[Thanks, J]
