September 7, 2007 9:22 AM
Now This is Telepresence...
Found this great article yesterday about a unique take on enabling more effective telecommuting: a mobile, remote controlled robot with camera and screen attached that the telecommuter can use to navigate the office when they're working from home.
While the technology doesn't appear to be all that cutting edge, and the article doesn't mention any plans to commercialize the product, I still found this to be an ingenuous solution to the problem of small group collaboration for teleworkers trying to interact with people at the office.
And this is especially interesting as it relates to more than an idea but an actual deployment, one that has proven successful enough that other employees in this company--iAnywhere--are clamoring for their own IvanAnywhere (the name of this creation, referring to its primary user, Ivan Bowman).
While it may sound hokey, I wouldn't be surprised at all if we started seeing this concept gain some momentum and eventually become an actual product. Only time will tell!
