AS robots go, this one doesn鈥檛 look like much. It rolls on a small
four-wheeled base, and its instruments鈥攁 video camera, a hand-sized screen
and a microphone鈥攑erch atop a thin pole. You might be tempted to hang your
coat on it, but don鈥檛 be misled. This is no ordinary robot. With a PC and a
connection to the Internet, almost anybody could 鈥渂ecome鈥� this robot for a time
and explore laboratories, attend lectures or even just hang out with
friends.
The robot, or Personal Roving Presence (PRoP) as it is officially known,
lives for now at the University of California, Berkeley. A PRoP provides a
remotely controlled physical form for people who surf the Internet. Its
creators, professor of computer science John Canny and graduate student Eric
Paulos, say that these modest, inexpensive robots could make standard
teleconferencing obsolete and eventually reduce the need for business travel.
鈥淢ost meetings are unplanned鈥攜ou just bump into people in corridors and
exchange a few words,鈥� says Canny. These kinds of meetings are impossible using
current teleconferencing techniques, which take significant organisation. For
chatting and observing, a PRoP could be almost as good as being there.
A PRoP operates via a wireless radio link to the World Wide Web. An Internet
user logs on to the device and achieves what Canny and Paulos have dubbed
鈥渢ele-embodiment鈥�, seeing what the PRoP sees, listening to what it hears and
talking to the people the ProP meets. In theory, any company employee could
visit an overseas office using just one PRoP. With a simple program on a PC, the
user can control the movement of the robot and look around using its colour
video camera. He or she talks through its speaker, listens with its microphone
and gestures with the PRoP鈥檚 small arm. The robot also features a live video
image of the user鈥檚 face on a liquid-crystal display.
Advertisement
With a PRoP you can stroll through a building in some distant location,
attend meetings, or pop into offices. The researchers find that one of the most
intriguing and useful things a PRoP can do is just 鈥渉ang out鈥�. Since the PRoP in
principle can go anywhere, any time, it can be spontaneous in a way that
existing teleconferencing techniques certainly can鈥檛. A PRoP could let someone
in New York spend an hour in a London office, where they might bump into a
colleague at the coffee machine and swap a few ideas.
Rich reality
In part, the project began as Canny鈥檚 reaction to virtual reality. 鈥淩ather
than having everyone migrating into cyber-space, we want to exploit the richness
of reality,鈥� he says. His team built the first radio-controlled PRoPs several
years ago in the form of helium-filled balloons equipped with tiny cameras,
speakers and microphones. These were intended to be wandering observing
stations. But the balloons could not carry heavy batteries and tended to drift
out of control. 鈥淲e found the most interesting thing you could do with it was
talk to people,鈥� says Canny. 鈥淭hen we realised you could be remotely immersed in
an environment. The carts were a natural step.鈥�
The carts need little maintenance compared with the balloons. They move
forward, turn and move backwards like a remote controlled car. They can also
carry large battery packs. A PRoP user pilots the cart, moves its 鈥渉ead鈥� (camera
and screen), and controls its pointer from his or her own computer using a
mouse. And the robot has an on-board computer to help with video and audio
processing. All of the hardware on the latest PRoP is commercially available,
and the researchers say the parts cost just over $2000, a price that
could drop with mass production.
It even looks cheap although Paulos is defensive about the robot鈥檚
appearance. 鈥淧eople say it looks rickety,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it better not look
threatening.鈥� He lowered the cart鈥檚 height to its present 1.5 metres after a
fellow student said she did not like it looming over her. Safety concerns also
dictate much of the design. The latest PRoP weighs just under 9 kilograms, and
the researchers have reduced the power and speed of its motor so that a human
could stop the PRoP with an outstretched hand. The more physical prowess a PRoP
gains, the more harm it could do if guided by a nefarious, careless, or
inebriated user. Paulos notes that many of their ideas had to be discarded after
looking at worst case scenarios.
By making the PRoP harmless, the researchers hope to reduce legal worries,
but incompetent piloting will still be a problem. 鈥淚 worry most about the thing
falling down a stairway and injuring someone that way,鈥� says Canny.
Working out how a robot should interact with the world around it is a
difficult task. For guidance, Canny and Paulos have enlisted the help of
Berkeley social psychologist Gerald Mendelsohn. According to Mendelsohn,
influence and trust-building rely heavily on nonverbal aspects of communication
such as looking at a person while you talk to them and standing close enough to
be heard but far enough away to be non-threatening.
Canny鈥檚 PRoPs already have some of these abilities off pat. Via the PRoP you
can make eye contact with people standing round the robot, look from one person
to another, or even stare pensively out of a nearby window. Successful gaze
cueing is a great improvement on video conferencing. And with a little practice,
anyone can position a PRoP easily.
Say hello, wave goodbye
Gesturing is the next thing, Canny says. The need for the simple pointer
became obvious during early trials. In one case, Canny logged onto the Berkeley
PRoP while in Massachusetts. He successfully toured the laboratories and spoke
to his students, but he ran into a problem. 鈥淗e was trying to gesture to some
drawings on a whiteboard,鈥� says Paulos. Canny鈥檚 only option was to nod awkwardly
at the board with the head of the PRoP. In another instance, Paulos decided to
attend one of his classes as the PRoP. He took notes from the comfort of his
apartment, but he couldn鈥檛 participate fully. 鈥淚 realised that I couldn鈥檛 ask
questions without just yelling out,鈥� he says.
A full robotic version of a human arm would both escalate costs and
complicate the user鈥檚 control of the robot, so the researchers are
optimistically trying to cut corners. 鈥淢uppets can be pretty expressive,鈥� Canny
says. 鈥淎nd they don鈥檛 have many degrees of freedom.鈥� The most recent PRoP has a
simple stick, with a laser pointer that can pivot from side to side and tilt up
and down.
The project has just now reached a rigorous testing phase, and the
researchers say so far, so good. The importance of direct feedback has surprised
them. PRoP users feel much more immersed in their remote locale when they can
look down and see the wheels rolling or the pointer moving according to their
requests. 鈥淓very time we run it, we see new ways to improve it,鈥� says
Paulos.
Canny predicts that PRoPs will first permeate academic research laboratories,
then corporate research facilities, and eventually the corporate business world.
But using PRoPs to visit the in-laws is still some way off, alas.