Telepresence

Apple TV has been around since about four years before Google dominated tech headlines last month with the Google TV demo at Google I/O. It was a wakeup call for an Apple TV update when there was such a huge response to the Google TV demo. Rumors about a new Apple TV were flying in Silicon Valley just a week after Google TV was announce. Apple's renewed initiative for Apple TV sets the scene for a battle between technological superpowers for the future control of a $ 150-billion dollar advertising market.

Article Resource: Apple TV rumors hit the grapevine the week after Google TV demo

The Apple TV update

From this Science Daily article: "Telemedicine facilitates communication between family physicians, hospitals and nursing services -- yet current solutions lack flexibility and are consequently very expensive. A new software program is now available that can be tailored to a range of applications.

This ZDNet article reports: "The growth in teleoperation systems has achieved a critical mass that has led researchers to explore ways to collaborate, share facilities and access each others’ telerobotic devices.

Nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

From the Harvard Business Blog: "In a tight economy, with companies spending much less on IT, the tech giants will take growth wherever they can find it. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Cisco and HP are in a pitched battle for customers for their high-end teleconferencing systems. According to the report, it's "one of the few technologies that has benefited from the downturn, growing 30% from last year as businesses look to reduce travel expenses."

Cisco TelePresence team sent us information about the recently launched “Why I Want Cisco TelePresence” video contest at http://www.whyiwantciscotelepresence.com/contest/. This new contest is designed to entice individuals from around the world to submit their ideas about why or how they would like to use Cisco TelePresence in their work lives – how they might connect to co-workers or peers in other locations; the benefits they would uniquely reap; why they would be the ideal person to use a Cisco TelePresence system. Winners in two categories, Productivity and Shaping the Future, have a chance to win $3,000 each.

This ZDNet Emerging Tech article takes a look at a technical paper (pdf) which covers more than 50 years of history of bilateral teleoperation. From the article: "In case you’re not familiar with the concept of bilateral teleoperation, this is just a way to remotely control robots. Two researchers have written a technical paper which covers more than 50 years of history of bilateral teleoperation. This paper has just received the ‘Automatica Best Paper’ in the survey/tutorial category. The award will be given at the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Triennial World Congress held in Seoul, South Korea (July 6-11, 2008). But read more…

This HaiVision Systems press release (pdf) reports their MAKO-HD video encoder/decoder technology has been used to transmit live surgical stereoscopic 3D high definition 1080i video from Intuitive Surgical’s daVinci S robotic surgical system. From the press release: "Orchestrated by Capital Health's Centre for the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery and BEAM Regional Telehealth, attendees at the CUA meeting at the Shaw Conference Center are witnessing a comparison between robotic and traditional approaches to a urology procedure (radical prostatectomy).

This Human Productivity Lab article compares the commercially available telepresence systems. From the article: "U.S. News and World Report has published a superb article on telepresence by Liz Wolgemuth entitled: "Telepresence" Enhances Video Conferencing. In that article, Wolgemuth quotes me on a variety of telepresence topics. There was one quote which I felt needed to be expanded upon:

"Cisco competes with HP, Polycom, Teliris, and other entries in the telepresence market. The larger companies all make similar systems at slightly varying prices," says Howard Lichtman, who runs both a research consultancy, the Human Productivity Lab, and a publishing arm called Telepresence Options in Ashburn, Va.

This press release reports the University of Ottawa and IBM are engaging in a partnership to further pursue research in collaborative tele-presence at the DISCOVER Lab. From the press release: "This initiative is being supported by an IBM Shared University Research (SUR) grant.

The main objective of collaborative tele-presence is to give the impression to its users that they “exist” in the same virtual or real location, when in reality they are not, to the extent that they can interact with each other and with shared objects as in the real world.

This NewScientist Blog post takes a look at the consumer robot solutions for telepresence. From the article: "A few interesting consumer robots were launched at the end of last week. The pick of the bunch is called ConnectR - and is designed to let you interact with distant friends and family.

To 'visit' the owner, you connect to the robot over the web, driving it around, and experiencing what its video camera and microphone pick up. It will be sold for under £250 (US$500).