U.S. Baby Meets ‘Robot’ Dad in Iraq
Army Staff Sgt. Erik Lloyd, who is stationed in Iraq, used a
remote-controlled telepresence robot to see and interact with his
family and seven day-old son in Texas.
The (rather good-looking)
camo-enhanced device has a live video uplink and responds to remote
control.
This technology has been around for quite a while (see the InTouch Companion: Medical Rounding Robot for a 2004 example), but this is the first time I've heard about it being used by distant dads to interact with their families.
There's something just a little bit creepy about this being the
first interaction that a 7 day-old has with his father. However, the
remotely-operated robot does present mostly the face and voice of the
father, which is what the child will probably focus on. Also, there's
no doubt that it provides a means for the dad to be a part of the
stateside family life, which is great.
I prefer the more spartan HeadThere Giraffe Telepresence Robot
for this particular usage; it has a kind of "mirror, mirror on the
wall" look to it that seems more like a display and less like a person.
And if you really wanted to blow the kid's mind, I'd use the Robonaut Centaur, a NASA-designed lunar-roving robot, because you could use it to actually hold
your new son with its robotic arms. I can just hear him a year or two
later – "My dad has wheels and superpowers – how about your dad?"
When the baby grows up, he might have the chance to use a telepresence robot himself; see the PEBBLES Robot – Teleconferencing For Kids.
(This Science Fiction in the News story used with permission of Technovelgy.com)