On my way back from the Ohio Linux Fest, my friend Bill mentioned that iRobot is building a new Roomba-style robot to provide “presence” to remote users. It’s called the ConnectR and provides a remote user (say, a dad traveling on business) the ability to move around, see, and talk to others (say, a family who’s dad is traveling on business).
iRobot hopes to sell the ConnectR for $499, which ArsTechnica thinks is steep, but having priced what it costs to put an IvanAnywhere-style robot together, I can say that 500 bucks is a bargain. Building something like this yourself would easily run $1500 or more. ConnectR has Wifi, high-quality sound, and a fully controllable pan-and-tilt camera. The one thing it doesn’t have is a screen showing the remote user, but a clever geek could easily fix this shortcoming.
iRobot has a beta program in place for the ConnectR, where participants might be offered a special deal on ConnectR. If you’d like to participate, you can sign up here. And if any of my MT.Net readers is lucky enough to be selected, please post your experiences here!
We used to keep a yahoo window open and “talk” to each other throughout the day. Everything from “what’s at the feeder” updates to what we were having for dinner.
It seemed to me like a closer model to the way the family image developed. Father’s and Mother’s working close enough that they could easily pass a message to each other… In any case, it worked for us.