Fly to your next meeting with Google’s telepresence robot

suasnews.com
By Gary Mortimer
-3 February 2017

Horray for Google, their patent that went through yesterday has given me a most excellent excuse to post my favourite drone video of 2016 once again, Robot Drone Man Fly!

First the Google patent.

A mobile telepresence system may include a frame, a propulsion system operably coupled to the frame to propel the frame through a designated space, a screen movably coupled to the frame, and an image output device coupled to the frame. The frame may include a central body defining a longitudinal axis of the frame, a first arm at a first end portion of the central body, and a second arm at a second end portion of the central body, opposite the first end portion of the central body. The propulsion system may include rotors at opposite end portions of the first and second arms which propel the frame in response to an external command. The image output device may project an image onto the screen in response to an external command.

Now the most excellent video.


Several smartphone based quadcopters are coming to market, any of them would be able to complete this task. Much like anyone at the meeting connecting to the person wishing to join via Skype could also complete the task.

Another thing that pops straight to mind is that a DJI Mavic has all the sensors to avoid hitting things, makes a SLAM map on the fly can connect to Facebook Live. Just as long as your meeting does not go over 28 minutes and nobody has shut a door you are good to go. The only thing it does not have is the screen to show your face.

Over the horizon flying into rescue situations and able to communicate almost face to face. I get that; it would be reassuring while physical help was en route. Or Maybe Google really has another office environment in mind, collapsed ones.

#RobotDroneManFly come on sing along now. It’s a Friday earworm.

Read more:

https://www.suasnews.com/2017/02/fly-next-meeting-googles-teleprescence-robot/

Google’s Parent Company Kills Solar Drone Program

dronelife.comBY MIRIAM MCNABB
JANUARY 12, 2017

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is shutting down the solar-powered drone program – Titan – run by division X, which was designed to provide Internet access to remote areas of the world.

The shut down, reports Business Insider, is “the latest example of the company’s efforts to cut back its ambitious ‘moonshots.'”

A representative from X told Business Insider that the company will focus its efforts on Project Loon, Google’s high-altitude balloons, to deliver internet service.

Industry experts say that this is the latest in a series of project cutbacks imposed by Alphabet’s CFO, Ruth Porat. Stricter financial discipline in the company is limiting exploration of long shot projects at X. Google purchased Titan Aerospace, the company that created the solar-powered drones, in 2014; but has now reassigned the Titan team to other projects at X.

Bloomberg reports that X is in a period of turmoil as project leaders leave, including the leader of Project Loon, Mike Cassidy; Dave Vos, the head of Google’s drone delivery project, Project Wing; and Urmson, the engineer working on self-driving cars. Alphabet has also announced plans to sell their satellite-imaging service, Terra Bella, and robot maker Boston Dynamics. The company has spun off the driverless car project into a independent entity.

The end of the Titan project and the tightening of Alphabet’s purse strings would seem to leave the field open for Facebook and Amazon to be first to the skies with a viable drone system. Facebook’s Aquila system, another attempt to deliver internet services to remote areas of the globe, began testing last summer; while the drone will need to become lighter in order to be viable in the long term, the technology looks promising.

Read more at:

http://dronelife.com/2017/01/12/googles-parent-company-kills-solar-drone-program/