{"id":10704,"date":"2018-10-23T12:20:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T16:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=10704"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:05:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:05:43","slug":"here-and-there-experiences-with-a-remote-presence-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2018\/10\/23\/here-and-there-experiences-with-a-remote-presence-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"Here and there: Experiences with a remote presence robot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I lugged the inert, soulless body around for a few hours, before my colleague some thousand miles away took control of it. Later, as I was flying to Denver, Colorado, there was a conference keynote in Ann Arbor, Michigan I wanted to attend. I decided to connect to the body I knew was there, waiting for me to enter. I connected to the airplane WiFi, paid the charge, and tried to connect. It twitched, but the connection wasn\u2019t strong enough and so it sat immobile and lifeless. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, this isn&#8217;t the opening to a sci-fi novel. It is my experiences using one of <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doublerobotics.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Double Robotic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s remote presence robots\u2014a &#8220;Double (1)&#8221; to be precise. The \u201cbody,\u201d by the way, looks like this:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10726\" src=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/telepresence-robot-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"622\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/telepresence-robot-1.jpg 231w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/telepresence-robot-1-52x140.jpg 52w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/telepresence-robot-1-74x200.jpg 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Double (1) allowed me to simultaneously attend two conferences hundreds of miles apart, and it allowed a colleague in Arizona to attend a conference in Illinois while still teaching her summer courses. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are some things I want to note about using a remote presence unit.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Embodiment is significantly different than being a presence on screen. There is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">just enough<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> autonomy to give you a feeling of being distinctly in two places simultaneously. Despite this embodiment, you cannot manipulate your surroundings: the unit is not heavy enough to open doors, and there is no appendage for button pushing. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two things you will likely experience when using a remote presence body:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One: People taking photos and touching \u201cyou\u201d without your permission.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two: People talking about you as if you aren\u2019t there, even when you raise your \u201chead\u201d (actually an iPad) to look them in the eye.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For me, these experiences were humbling and eye-opening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nevertheless, I recommend the experience. Talk it over with your supervisor first and then maybe try leading a meeting using the remote presence robot to \u201cbe there.\u201d Or use it to help a colleague attend a conference session or a meeting when they cannot travel. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019d love to hear about your experiences if you choose to try this unit! To learn more about co-location via a Double (1) unit, contact <a href=\"mailto:HDvideoconferencing@umich.edu\">HDvideoconferencing@umich.edu<\/a> or visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/its.umich.edu\/communication\/videoconferencing\/robots\">https:\/\/its.umich.edu\/communication\/videoconferencing\/robots<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I lugged the inert, soulless body around for a few hours, before my colleague some thousand miles away took control of it. Later, as I was flying to Denver, Colorado, there was a conference keynote in Ann Arbor, Michigan I wanted to attend. I decided to connect to the body I knew was there, waiting for me to\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2018\/10\/23\/here-and-there-experiences-with-a-remote-presence-robot\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":10729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[226,421,579],"class_list":["post-10704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-projects-services","tag-audiovisual","tag-robot","tag-telepresence"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",562,375,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face-200x133.jpg",200,133,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",562,375,false],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",562,375,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",562,375,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",562,375,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face-562x300.jpg",562,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",562,375,false],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/double-robotics-face.jpg",375,250,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Phillip Cameron, LSA Language Resource Center","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/phillcam\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I lugged the inert, soulless body around for a few hours, before my colleague some thousand miles away took control of it. Later, as I was flying to Denver, Colorado, there was a conference keynote in Ann Arbor, Michigan I wanted to attend. I decided to connect to the body I knew was there, waiting&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10728,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704\/revisions\/10728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}