#i use it to make all kinds of stuff ranging from virtual museums to 3d sculptures to digital toys
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aurosoulart · 2 years ago
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...you lose followers for furry art? And here it confirmed for me I was in the right place...
it's funny you ask because since sharing that post I've regained any lost followers from it and THEN some 💖😭
I feel a little bad, though, since I don't currently have a lot of time to make new 2D art due to working in Figmin XR... but animal motifs still show up in my work a lot regardless of medium!! (mostly deers hehe 🦌)
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differenceenginegirl · 5 years ago
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Everything seems a little dark and scary at the moment, so I have complied a list of links to cultural and/or educational things (and some just streams of cute animals, or just plain fun) that are available to watch or listen to or do for free (mostly) online. Some of these will only work for the duration of the current situation (marked with a *), but most are permanent (so far as I know) so can be kept around for a little bit of sunshine on a rainy day.
Feel free to add to this with your own links or ideas, and remember, we’ll get through this together (with the appropriate social distancing). Follow the advice that’s been given, wash your hands, and be kind to one another. 
The majority of links were brought to my attention by @theyahwehdance, @elleflies, and @buckysleftarm (plus a bit of a deep dive through my drafts). Under a cut because hoo boy it got long... 
(Some links in the linked lists may be broken, some may be region-locked, and some may be duplicated, I haven’t checked them all.)
Culture and Education!
The Metropolitan Opera, free nightly (19:30 EDT, 23:00 GMT) broadcasts of operas, available for 20 hours following the broadcast too. (Schedule for the first week)*
Berlin Philharmonic: 30 days free access to their virtual concert hall (redeem before 31st March 2020)*
Playbill have compiled a list of 15 professionally recorded musicals you can watch at home (Not all free) and are inviting people to join them in watching Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella Starring Lesley Ann Warren on 20th March at 20:00 ET! (video may be region locked) 
12 highlighted virtual museum tours and a whole load of others from around the world!
Science Twitter, a series of Skype with a Scientist virtual lectures! (A sign up with an email is required through the link in the tweet, running from 12:00-14:00 EST, (16:00-18:00 GMT)
30 virtual field trips! Links to virtual tours and live cameras of many different places! (Aimed at kids)
Animals!
Cincinnati Zoo Facebook Live virtual safaris, every weekday at 15:00 EDT (19:00 GMT)* Completed safaris will be posted to their website shortly after the Live finishes, and also kept on their Facebook.
Live Monterey Bay Aquarium Cams: 10 different cams showing various tanks and enclosures, and the bay itself!
Live San Diego Zoo Cams: 9 different cams showing various creatures in their habitats! 
Atlanta Zoo Panda Cam
Danish Sea Eagles Cam (this site in Danish, and may go dark, as the equipment is solar powered): A live feed of a Danish Sea Eagle nest!
Peregrines in Norwich and Bath!
Live Animal Cam, Ohio: A cam focused on a feeding station, with night vision so the feed continues even after the sun goes down! (This shows wild animals, so there is no guarantee that you’ll see creatures)
Shedd Aquarium let their penguins out to explore! (Under supervision) More exploration here! 
Two Oceans Aquarium did too, and look at these little cuties on the stairs!
A livestream of adoptable kitties!
And here’s a thread with some of these cams, and more!
Music!
Various people (started by cellist Yo-Yo Ma) playing/sharing music that comforts them on Twitter.
Virtual High School Musicals! (Original Thread) (Wider Hashtag) Many High School kids are now finding themselves unable to perform the musicals they’ve been working so hard on, so Laura Benanti invited them to video themselves performing and share it with her, so they still get to perform for an appreciative audience! (Some of these are absolutely stunning!)
Never before heard Hamilton track demo! 
A playlist of Quarantunes on Spotify, compiled by Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks’ wife)
A playlist of 101 Feel-Good songs on Spotify, compiled by @lanamlouise 
This guy made a really cool instrument out of PVC pipes!
A group of engineers in Stockholm turned a set of stairs into a piano to encourage people to use them rather than the escalator!
Stories!
Josh Gad reads a bedtime story (Olivia goes to Venice) with voices!
Various celebrities reading kids stories, as part of a charity initiative to keep kids fed during school shutdowns.
A bunch of free short stories, essays, audio and video by the wonderful author @neil-gaiman (Plus two photos of him in an ancient hat!)
Find your local indie bookstore and support them while also getting a new book! (US only)
And of course, you can’t leave out the marvelous Archive Of Our Own for fanfiction and fanworks for almost every fandom you can think of! (Remember to make use of the tags and filters to narrow your search or avoid things you don’t want to see/read!)
Food!
A recipe for Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares! (Apparently like sugar cookies, but in bar form and better)
A fudgy brownie-in-a-mug recipe!
A really nice chocolate pudding (in the British sense, so like a cake) with spiced chocolate sauce! (I love the whole cookbook that this is from, and it’s especially good for Discworld fans. Available from various sellers, I have linked my favourite money-sink, the Discworld Emporium: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook)
My favourite biscuits (cookies) to make! Honey and cinnamon, with a picture book (Honey Biscuits by Meredith Hooper) that you can read alongside to explain to kids where all the ingredients came from!
Creativity and learning new things!
LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems! (13:00 ET weekdays, videos remain post-stream) Aimed mostly at kids, but don’t let that stop you doodling with the  Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence!
A little list of doll makers/dress-up sites!
How to take really good photos of the night sky with a phone! (Please continue to observe social distancing rules while taking your pretty pictures)
Fancy making a language? Here’s a site with resources to help you get going with that!
A long list of sources of inspiration, arty websites, and some that are just fun!
Make your very own Peaches the Mouse by @my-darling-boy!
Want to learn 3D modelling? Fusion360 is free (for hobbyists and students) and professionally used, with a good network of tutorials and an, imo, fairly intuitive interface! (I use this a lot)
Want to play with Photoshop but don’t have the money? Here’s a free, in browser version! (Has ads, but they’re unobtrusive)
Want to try your hand at creating a sim? The Sims 4 Character Creator Demo is free! (Limited options, but still fun to play with)
Whether you play D&D or not, this is a really cool custom miniature creator, with loads of options that are being constantly added to updated! (And if you have the money, you can get it in a printable format, or printed for you in a variety of materials!)
Fancy learning something new? Memrise has a load of free courses, ranging from real languages like French or Spanish for beginners to fictional languages like Quenya (one of the Elven languages from LotR) or Klingon, or trivia bits like Harry Potter Spells or Noble Houses in Game of Thrones, and many more! (Available in multiple languages, although not all courses may be available in all languages)
Ever fancied trying to build armour or cosplay props from foam? R31 Studios has you covered with free PDF templates for all sorts of bits!
Meditation and Calm!
60 second meditation tool! Put a worry into a star, and watch it float away with a calming soundtrack and 
Meditation with Lizzo!
Customisable Rain Sounds!
Customisable Train Sounds!
And many more customisable noise generators!
Play with liquid/particles! (Warning: this one made me feel a bit motion-sick, but pretty!)
Interactive generative art!
Random bits I couldn’t catagorise!
Don’t want to dine alone? Have dinner with the Gaffigans!
A series of Mildly Interesting images from @catchymemes!
A group of stuntmen doing Super Mario!
Another list of Good Links (Really well organised!) by @secretladyspider! 
@thelatestkate draws wonderfully reassuring cartoons! (On Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook too!)
World Record Egg Instagram! Lots of nice little positive cartoons.
Happy news from The Happy Broadcast on Instagram, The Happy News, and HuffPost Good News!
Here’s an ongoing list of good stuff by @pftones3482! (Check the notes for more good stuff, and the latest addition)
Some feel-good browser games!
And finally, a little frog here to give you some reassurance!
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twistednuns · 6 years ago
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December 2018
Iglo Veggie love with broccoli, buckwheat and black beans. Quick and easy.
The TEDxTUM event was pretty inspiring. I loved how they organised it and some of the speakers were amazing. Seeing all the cool stuff other people are working on actually motivated me to try and achieve great things myself. I'd like to learn about something new, start a project or volunteer.
Pick Up Limes videos.
The way Cher sings the word Memphis in her cover song.
Seeing Frank for the first time in four months. Having a good time at the Uncle Acid concert, getting a beer at Flex. Even though meeting him always causes some kind of emotional turmoil it might actually help to solve a few things I've been stressing over this time, for example that whole deal with Claudia.
Spending two hours in the kitchen on a Sunday morning. Preparing a summer and a winter curry. Pre-cutting salad. Listening to Tai Chi music. Baking these divine buckwheat chocolate cookies - absolutely delicious even though I forgot to add salt. Kinda healthy, too! It's grain-free (I even used groats) and I substituted part of the sugar with honey.
Gift ideas for rock collectors and mycophiles.
A spotted woodpecker in our backyard.
Dalmatian Jasper. Such a pretty stone.
Blinded by the Light. And a trip down musical memory lane. Making a nostalgia mixtape. Singing, enjoying the sound of my voice (as long as I hit the right vocal range).
Drawing owls. For hours. Using my Polychromos coloured pencils. I'm currerntly working on two owl-related projects, designing a logo for coffee roasters and making my friends' wedding invitation. Drawing owls like lovebirds is such a satisfying thing to do. Also: making my students come up with new ideas! Some actually drew some owl logos, too!
Tetris.
Reading books I don't understand. By people who are smarter than me. A very humbling experience. There is so much more to learn, experience and achieve.
Franzi's elegant coat and her ice crystal earrings. She's pregnant but she is skinnier than before and looks great. We cuddled up on a rooftop and had Kinderpunsch.
Practising The Pogues' Fairytale of New York for for karaoke night. I never hit the NYPD choir note quite right. My neighbours must hate me.
Taking a mental health day. Starting the day with baking cookies, making vegan sushi rolls. Reading, taking a nap. Yoga in the evening. Feeling really happy and relaxed. One of those rare inspired days when everything just falls into place. I kept revisiting beautiful places and memories during Shavasana. And I LOVE my yoga teacher more and more each week. So sad she is leaving the studio.
Taming your temper - tips for anger management.
Another coincidence. I wondered when the next Bilderbuch record will be released when I was looking at Mavi Phoenix at her concert - that girl is the female version of Maurice Ernst. A few hours later I found out that Bilderbuch actually had released a new album one day ago. WHAT.
Mirror tape.
Being a fluffy little red cat's human of choice. We sat in a cat café, no animals in sight. After a while a cat walked up straight towards me, sat down on my yellow scarf and kneaded it. Later she demanded attention and purred while I scratched her jaw. Apparently this was quite a rare occurence because she is said to be really shy and hard to handle. Weirdos unite!
Making Bhindi Masala, a vegan okra curry. Spicy and intense - delicious! Oh, and sushi rolls filled with avocado, veggies and fancy tofu/tempeh. Now I have a whole container waiting for me in the fridge.
Practising yoga for 20min on a gloomy Monday morning. Lighting a candle, drinking a cup of Ayurvedic Kapha tea with honey and lemon.
Tom, who inspired me to learn more about Ayurveda. And to rewatch The Darjeeling Limited because let's face it - Wes Anderson really knows how to make one of the poorest countries in the world look gorgeous.
We become what we think about. It's impossible to be successful without having a destination.
Quotations from Siri Hustvedt's The Blazing World: 1 / 2
"Smelling you almost makes me cum."
Running around with a fake septum piercing. I kinda like the look. I'm actually considering getting a real one but so far I'm fine with the clip-ons. The good thing is that you can't see the ring's ends anyway in that kind of piercing.
Spending time with the old friends. The best ones. The ones you don't have to speak to and it's still not uncomfortable. The ones you can be super weird around and they embrace it. The ones you can tell your strangest ideas and stories.
There is a new Turkish supermarket right around the corner! Fresh cilantro whenever I want! YES!!!
Heavy snowfall. It does look kinda pretty, I admit.
Many questions, not enough answers at the ESO Supernova exhibition/planetarium. / Making another cat friend over breakfast. / Seeing my foxy ginger lady Anika again after such a long time! / Orange marzipan lebkuchen and roasted coconut almonds (they taste like Raffaello). / Finding the perfect earrings and a beautiful head band at EDITED - The Label. / Performing Fairytale of New York live on stage with Manu. Being able to curse at somebody through song is perfect, I had a lot of fun. Also, he promised me his art teacher sweater as a Christmas present.
A knitting project with rainbow wool.
Making a clay sculpture for my mum. Taking it out of the oven at 80 degrees, wrapped in a dish towel like a baby.
The honey marzipan nougat bar from dm bio.
Meeting Manu at his office. Receiving the most awesome paint palette sweater as a Christmas present! And he let me spend a full hour in virtual reality! He has such an amazing programme which lets you draw in 3D and float around in space (with VR goggles). I'm absolutely fascinated and intrigued. Gotta visit him more often.
Meeting Tobi, Maike, Lena and Christian at Märchenbasar. Being drunk after some Feuerzangenbowle with rum (Pfeffi in Manu's case) and white mulled wine. Taking the long way home.
Buying Paulaner Spezi for my class. Supermarket trips with the kids before 8am. Schrottwichteln. Watching random goat videos and intros to children's series.
Having a drink at Goldene Bar in Haus der Kunst. Such a gorgeous place. I'm trying to get into a workshop on the museum's architecture at the end of January.
Making random people want to kiss me. Having no desire whatsoever to actually kiss them.
The Harry Potter round (on special request) at the pub quiz.
Reading Stephen Hawking's short answers to some of the big questions. I have to admit, I know nothing about physics or cosmology and at times his explanations were super hard to understand (fine, I probably didn't understand most of it) but I love creating a need to use my brain in uncommon ways.
Vivid dreams. About  dangerous skyscrapers (just different floors stacked loosely on top of each other), a kidnapping in a futuristic car by very glamorous gangsters, lesbians on a scooter trying to save me, travelling through Asia and the US with Sash, a sinking ship (but all the passengers swam back to the surface after a short period of unconsciousness), ATMs, fancy drinks, meeting strangers with beautiful eyelashes at a restaurant.
Discovering the Trouvelot astronomical drawings (1882) on the darkest day of the year, winter solstice. Watching the night fade away ever so slowly in the morning from the kitchen window, squeezing fresh oranges to make juice for breakfast. Bright orange and midnight blue is a great colour combination.
ASMRctica.
An article about a dear friend of mine appeared in Süddeutsche Zeitung! So happy for him.
Spending time with very old friends right before Christmas. Tobi, Sash, Michi, Yanic, Fischi and his wife... Playing MarioKart on SNES with Peter and taking weird selfies together. I had a very nice evening.
Managing to get a look at downtown Chicago during my layover. I uber-ed into the city centre (watching the skyscrapers getting larger and larger), walked around Millenium Park and along Lake Michigan. I spent quite a bit of time at Blick, an amazing art store, before I took the train back to the airport.
Arriving in Mexico in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. Seeing the city sparkling from above. Watching a bunch of kids beating a pinata well after midnight. Arriving in a beautiful artist's apartment in Condesa.
The Anthropology Museum in CDMX made it on the list of my favourite museums ever. I could have spent days there. I kept sketching some of the funny masks and Maya figurines. There were plenty of creepy tombs and skeletons, depictions of weird Gods, handicrafts and woodcarvings. It was just so interesting, probably because I had never seen a lot of South American / Aztec culture before and I love learning and exploring new things.
Christmas day in CDMX: sunshine, tacky glitter decorations, pointy balloons and spiky pinatas. Dancing, ancient smoke rituals performed by a Mayan community.
Mexican street food, especially the vegetarian street food tour with David. Meeting the Blue Corn Lady (her quesadillas are with cactus and beans and they're incredibly delicious). Flatbread, corn, fruit with chili and lime. Pulque and Mezcal. Finding out that the green salsa is actually worse than the red one. Tacos, Enchiladas, Tamales. If you go to Mexico just for the food you'll still have plenty to explore.
That evening with the pink sunset. Walking through the old used book store in Roma. Reading an interesting take on Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Meeting the resident cat.
Lucha Libre! Watching the luchadores, especially the small people in the second round. Laughing about the Mexican boy next to me swearing at the top of his lungs. Getting a mask as a souvenir.
Climbing the sun and moon pyramid at Teotihuacán. Getting a sunburn. Enjoying the atmosphere. It's a very impressive site.
Diving in Cozumel with Brooke-Anne (a librarian from Las Vegas who was raised by Mormons), Cynthia from Quebec and Lucie from Toulouse. Entering some coral formations underwater. Eating cantaloupe melon and chocolate cookies after the dive. Spending the evening with another Canadian, Jussi from Finland and that other dude from Puerto Rico. And some Indio beers.
What I loved most about Tulum were the ruins (right next to a gorgeous beach) and the health food restaurants (La Hoja Verde and Co.Conamor).
And this year I don't really have a good New Year's Eve story because I fell asleep at quarter past eleven in a little village west of Tulum. All alone. Could be worse though, I had an amazing year.
0 notes
technato · 7 years ago
Text
CES 2018: Suitable Tech Introduces BeamPro 2 Telepresence Platform
It’s one of the shiniest, fanciest, and most technologically advanced telepresence robots we’ve ever seen
Today, Suitable Technologies (the Willow Garage spinout that originally commercialized the Texai telepresence robots) is announcing a new ultra high-end telepresence robot, the BeamPro 2. The BP2, as it is now known to lazy typists like myself, is a significant upgrade to the BeamPro, with a substantive redesign and a bunch of new features to arguably make it the most capable telepresence robot you can buy.
Here’s all the new stuff, straight from the press release:
Suitable Technologies Inc., creator of the industry-leading Beam family of telepresence systems, today announced the addition of the BeamPro 2. This next-generation device offers advanced features that revolutionize communication within organizations.
The BeamPro 2 can easily and safely maneuver in crowded spaces with the latest in navigation technology. Optional extra sensors combined with the ability to spin in place allows users to drive a BeamPro 2 through tight spaces that can be found in hospitals, specialty-care facilities, manufacturing floors, museums and classrooms. 
With the largest, multi-touch HD video screen on the market and physical capability for vertical screen height adjustment, the user can interact face-to-face with a much more human quality. High-quality super-wide angle cameras provide clear views of remote surroundings and enable an easier user experience that simplifies tasks such as viewing documentation on a table, inspecting components on a manufacturing line, or monitoring patient readings in any care setting. Advanced speakers and microphone array provide full, rich audio for interacting and communicating with on-site colleagues.
Key features include:
Low-glare, Gorilla Glass 24-inch LCD display
Multi-touch capability
Dynamic vertical height adjustment of 10 inches
Ambient light sensors to adjust display to surrounding light
Two super-wide 12MP cameras streaming in full HD with 12x digital zoom
Multiple 3D depth cameras
Three speakers to provide a wider frequency range for lifelike sound
Fully digital microphone array featuring echo cancellation
Additional sensors for obstacle detection
Six wheels allowing stable movement and rotation in place
“BeamPro 2 has a modular mobile platform design, so it can be used as a reliable communication device for Beam telepresence meetings, as well as a platform for add-on accessories, which can enhance concepts such as virtual training, or remote patient care,” said Bo Preising, Chief Innovation Officer of Suitable Technologies. “This is our newest product designed with the best audio, video, and mobility technology available. BeamPro 2 is the most advanced telepresence device on the market and it provides richer human interaction.”
For more details, Bo Preising answered a few questions for us over email.
IEEE Spectrum: What kind of feedback did you get from BeamPro customers that influenced the design of the BeamPro 2?
Bo Preising: Multiple large customers have asked for the ability to raise and lower the display for better eye-eye contact. We’ve also added safety sensors for situations where there are delicate things in the environment (museums, healthcare, etc.) due to requests from customers. Some large customers have also asked for better camera technology— the ability to pan, tilt, and zoom, and some large customers have asked for laser pointer pan/tilt capability. As such, we’ve designed BeamPro 2 as a modular product with the capability to add or exchange new technologies without further engineering.
Can you describe what you mean by “modular mobile platform?” What are some examples of accessories that can be added to the BeamPro 2?
The original Beam products were designed to just be super reliable as robotic telepresence. The new BP2 device is designed to be a modular mobile platform that can provide telepresence as well as other technologies to the user. For example, depth cameras have been added for 3D viewing and safety along with the option to add LIDAR, pan/tilt/zoom cameras, pan/tilt laser pointers, or many other sensors to this device. We have thought through many ideas on how to add on accessories and have the connections, power, and platform to do so. This will allow us to explore areas outside normal telepresence.
How are the multiple 3D depth cameras used? What kinds of autonomy (or assistive autonomy) does BeamPro 2 have?
There are two 3D cameras, one in the front and one in the back, that allow for calibration of the system so the Beam knows where it is in its space. The front camera also has 120-degree total vertical tilt for obstacle avoidance. When backing up, the back camera helps with obstacle avoidance as well. The BP2 is still meant to be tele-operated. We find that having the user move the device around helps keep them engaged in the remote environment and thus allows the device to be perceived as the user more readily by the “locals,” or people who interact with the device.
What’s still weird to me is how little autonomy BP2 has considering the sensors that it comes with. I understand Bo’s point about keeping people engaged, but in my experience, something like automatic person following would be very useful to allow more of a focus on the conversation rather than the driving (although automatic obstacle avoidance may help with that significantly). Perhaps the sensors are there also to help enable some of those “modular mobile platform” use cases in “areas outside normal telepresence.” We’ll see.
We’ve been told that “pricing information will be available in the next few months,” but for context, the (now old and busted I guess) BeamPro costs $15k, and that’s without the optional lidar and camera upgrades. Our guess is that the BeamPro2 will be significantly more expensive, but still within a range that lets Suitable make a case that it will save companies money by making executive travel unnecessary. I say executive, because shuttling around those of us who fly in steerage is cheap enough that it’s just not worth it to use a robot like either of the pro-class Beams—especially since it’s less effective than being there in person.
And that brings up my last concern about BP2, and telepresence in general: At some point (and BP2 may already have passed that point), improvements to hardware give you diminishing returns on the telepresence experience. Is BP2, with its big screen, fancy cameras, and audio, going to help users (on both ends) communicate with each other more effectively? Sure it is. But how much more effectively, relative to the cost? And what’s the next step for two-way telepresence?
I have no doubt that Suitable is thinking about all of this stuff, and I’m idly wondering if they’re starting to position themselves as more of a remote mobile platform, sort of like iRobot’s AVA 500, which incidentally is now part of a spinoff called Ava Robotics. We should find out over the next year or so, as BeamPro 2 goes on sale this summer.
[ Suitable Technologies ]
CES 2018: Suitable Tech Introduces BeamPro 2 Telepresence Platform syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP
0 notes
technato · 7 years ago
Text
CES 2018: Suitable Tech Introduces BeamPro 2 Telepresence Platform
It’s one of the shiniest, fanciest, and most technologically advanced telepresence robots we’ve ever seen
Today, Suitable Technologies (the Willow Garage spinout that originally commercialized the Texai telepresence robots) is announcing a new ultra high-end telepresence robot, the BeamPro 2. The BP2, as it is now known to lazy typists like myself, is a significant upgrade to the BeamPro, with a substantive redesign and a bunch of new features to arguably make it the most capable telepresence robot you can buy.
Here’s all the new stuff, straight from the press release:
Suitable Technologies Inc., creator of the industry-leading Beam family of telepresence systems, today announced the addition of the BeamPro 2. This next-generation device offers advanced features that revolutionize communication within organizations.
The BeamPro 2 can easily and safely maneuver in crowded spaces with the latest in navigation technology. Optional extra sensors combined with the ability to spin in place allows users to drive a BeamPro 2 through tight spaces that can be found in hospitals, specialty-care facilities, manufacturing floors, museums and classrooms. 
With the largest, multi-touch HD video screen on the market and physical capability for vertical screen height adjustment, the user can interact face-to-face with a much more human quality. High-quality super-wide angle cameras provide clear views of remote surroundings and enable an easier user experience that simplifies tasks such as viewing documentation on a table, inspecting components on a manufacturing line, or monitoring patient readings in any care setting. Advanced speakers and microphone array provide full, rich audio for interacting and communicating with on-site colleagues.
Key features include:
Low-glare, Gorilla Glass 24-inch LCD display
Multi-touch capability
Dynamic vertical height adjustment of 10 inches
Ambient light sensors to adjust display to surrounding light
Two super-wide 12MP cameras streaming in full HD with 12x digital zoom
Multiple 3D depth cameras
Three speakers to provide a wider frequency range for lifelike sound
Fully digital microphone array featuring echo cancellation
Additional sensors for obstacle detection
Six wheels allowing stable movement and rotation in place
“BeamPro 2 has a modular mobile platform design, so it can be used as a reliable communication device for Beam telepresence meetings, as well as a platform for add-on accessories, which can enhance concepts such as virtual training, or remote patient care,” said Bo Preising, Chief Innovation Officer of Suitable Technologies. “This is our newest product designed with the best audio, video, and mobility technology available. BeamPro 2 is the most advanced telepresence device on the market and it provides richer human interaction.”
For more details, Bo Preising answered a few questions for us over email.
IEEE Spectrum: What kind of feedback did you get from BeamPro customers that influenced the design of the BeamPro 2?
Bo Preising: Multiple large customers have asked for the ability to raise and lower the display for better eye-eye contact. We’ve also added safety sensors for situations where there are delicate things in the environment (museums, healthcare, etc.) due to requests from customers. Some large customers have also asked for better camera technology— the ability to pan, tilt, and zoom, and some large customers have asked for laser pointer pan/tilt capability. As such, we’ve designed BeamPro 2 as a modular product with the capability to add or exchange new technologies without further engineering.
Can you describe what you mean by “modular mobile platform?” What are some examples of accessories that can be added to the BeamPro 2?
The original Beam products were designed to just be super reliable as robotic telepresence. The new BP2 device is designed to be a modular mobile platform that can provide telepresence as well as other technologies to the user. For example, depth cameras have been added for 3D viewing and safety along with the option to add LIDAR, pan/tilt/zoom cameras, pan/tilt laser pointers, or many other sensors to this device. We have thought through many ideas on how to add on accessories and have the connections, power, and platform to do so. This will allow us to explore areas outside normal telepresence.
How are the multiple 3D depth cameras used? What kinds of autonomy (or assistive autonomy) does BeamPro 2 have?
There are two 3D cameras, one in the front and one in the back, that allow for calibration of the system so the Beam knows where it is in its space. The front camera also has 120-degree total vertical tilt for obstacle avoidance. When backing up, the back camera helps with obstacle avoidance as well. The BP2 is still meant to be tele-operated. We find that having the user move the device around helps keep them engaged in the remote environment and thus allows the device to be perceived as the user more readily by the “locals,” or people who interact with the device.
What’s still weird to me is how little autonomy BP2 has considering the sensors that it comes with. I understand Bo’s point about keeping people engaged, but in my experience, something like automatic person following would be very useful to allow more of a focus on the conversation rather than the driving (although automatic obstacle avoidance may help with that significantly). Perhaps the sensors are there also to help enable some of those “modular mobile platform” use cases in “areas outside normal telepresence.” We’ll see.
We’ve been told that “pricing information will be available in the next few months,” but for context, the (now old and busted I guess) BeamPro costs $15k, and that’s without the optional lidar and camera upgrades. Our guess is that the BeamPro2 will be significantly more expensive, but still within a range that lets Suitable make a case that it will save companies money by making executive travel unnecessary. I say executive, because shuttling around those of us who fly in steerage is cheap enough that it’s just not worth it to use a robot like either of the pro-class Beams—especially since it’s less effective than being there in person.
And that brings up my last concern about BP2, and telepresence in general: At some point (and BP2 may already have passed that point), improvements to hardware give you diminishing returns on the telepresence experience. Is BP2, with its big screen, fancy cameras, and audio, going to help users (on both ends) communicate with each other more effectively? Sure it is. But how much more effectively, relative to the cost? And what’s the next step for two-way telepresence?
I have no doubt that Suitable is thinking about all of this stuff, and I’m idly wondering if they’re starting to position themselves as more of a remote mobile platform, sort of like iRobot’s AVA 500, which incidentally is now part of a spinoff called Ava Robotics. We should find out over the next year or so, as BeamPro 2 goes on sale this summer.
[ Suitable Technologies ]
CES 2018: Suitable Tech Introduces BeamPro 2 Telepresence Platform syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP
0 notes
technato · 7 years ago
Text
CES 2018: Suitable Tech Introduces BeamPro 2 Telepresence Platform
It’s one of the shiniest, fanciest, and most technologically advanced telepresence robots we’ve ever seen
Today, Suitable Technologies (the Willow Garage spinout that originally commercialized the Texai telepresence robots) is announcing a new ultra high-end telepresence robot, the BeamPro 2. The BP2, as it is now known to lazy typists like myself, is a significant upgrade to the BeamPro, with a substantive redesign and a bunch of new features to arguably make it the most capable telepresence robot you can buy.
Here’s all the new stuff, straight from the press release:
Suitable Technologies Inc., creator of the industry-leading Beam family of telepresence systems, today announced the addition of the BeamPro 2. This next-generation device offers advanced features that revolutionize communication within organizations.
The BeamPro 2 can easily and safely maneuver in crowded spaces with the latest in navigation technology. Optional extra sensors combined with the ability to spin in place allows users to drive a BeamPro 2 through tight spaces that can be found in hospitals, specialty-care facilities, manufacturing floors, museums and classrooms. 
With the largest, multi-touch HD video screen on the market and physical capability for vertical screen height adjustment, the user can interact face-to-face with a much more human quality. High-quality super-wide angle cameras provide clear views of remote surroundings and enable an easier user experience that simplifies tasks such as viewing documentation on a table, inspecting components on a manufacturing line, or monitoring patient readings in any care setting. Advanced speakers and microphone array provide full, rich audio for interacting and communicating with on-site colleagues.
Key features include:
Low-glare, Gorilla Glass 24-inch LCD display
Multi-touch capability
Dynamic vertical height adjustment of 10 inches
Ambient light sensors to adjust display to surrounding light
Two super-wide 12MP cameras streaming in full HD with 12x digital zoom
Multiple 3D depth cameras
Three speakers to provide a wider frequency range for lifelike sound
Fully digital microphone array featuring echo cancellation
Additional sensors for obstacle detection
Six wheels allowing stable movement and rotation in place
“BeamPro 2 has a modular mobile platform design, so it can be used as a reliable communication device for Beam telepresence meetings, as well as a platform for add-on accessories, which can enhance concepts such as virtual training, or remote patient care,” said Bo Preising, Chief Innovation Officer of Suitable Technologies. “This is our newest product designed with the best audio, video, and mobility technology available. BeamPro 2 is the most advanced telepresence device on the market and it provides richer human interaction.”
For more details, Bo Preising answered a few questions for us over email.
IEEE Spectrum: What kind of feedback did you get from BeamPro customers that influenced the design of the BeamPro 2?
Bo Preising: Multiple large customers have asked for the ability to raise and lower the display for better eye-eye contact. We’ve also added safety sensors for situations where there are delicate things in the environment (museums, healthcare, etc.) due to requests from customers. Some large customers have also asked for better camera technology— the ability to pan, tilt, and zoom, and some large customers have asked for laser pointer pan/tilt capability. As such, we’ve designed BeamPro 2 as a modular product with the capability to add or exchange new technologies without further engineering.
Can you describe what you mean by “modular mobile platform?” What are some examples of accessories that can be added to the BeamPro 2?
The original Beam products were designed to just be super reliable as robotic telepresence. The new BP2 device is designed to be a modular mobile platform that can provide telepresence as well as other technologies to the user. For example, depth cameras have been added for 3D viewing and safety along with the option to add LIDAR, pan/tilt/zoom cameras, pan/tilt laser pointers, or many other sensors to this device. We have thought through many ideas on how to add on accessories and have the connections, power, and platform to do so. This will allow us to explore areas outside normal telepresence.
How are the multiple 3D depth cameras used? What kinds of autonomy (or assistive autonomy) does BeamPro 2 have?
There are two 3D cameras, one in the front and one in the back, that allow for calibration of the system so the Beam knows where it is in its space. The front camera also has 120-degree total vertical tilt for obstacle avoidance. When backing up, the back camera helps with obstacle avoidance as well. The BP2 is still meant to be tele-operated. We find that having the user move the device around helps keep them engaged in the remote environment and thus allows the device to be perceived as the user more readily by the “locals,” or people who interact with the device.
What’s still weird to me is how little autonomy BP2 has considering the sensors that it comes with. I understand Bo’s point about keeping people engaged, but in my experience, something like automatic person following would be very useful to allow more of a focus on the conversation rather than the driving (although automatic obstacle avoidance may help with that significantly). Perhaps the sensors are there also to help enable some of those “modular mobile platform” use cases in “areas outside normal telepresence.” We’ll see.
We’ve been told that “pricing information will be available in the next few months,” but for context, the (now old and busted I guess) BeamPro costs $15k, and that’s without the optional lidar and camera upgrades. Our guess is that the BeamPro2 will be significantly more expensive, but still within a range that lets Suitable make a case that it will save companies money by making executive travel unnecessary. I say executive, because shuttling around those of us who fly in steerage is cheap enough that it’s just not worth it to use a robot like either of the pro-class Beams—especially since it’s less effective than being there in person.
And that brings up my last concern about BP2, and telepresence in general: At some point (and BP2 may already have passed that point), improvements to hardware give you diminishing returns on the telepresence experience. Is BP2, with its big screen, fancy cameras, and audio, going to help users (on both ends) communicate with each other more effectively? Sure it is. But how much more effectively, relative to the cost? And what’s the next step for two-way telepresence?
I have no doubt that Suitable is thinking about all of this stuff, and I’m idly wondering if they’re starting to position themselves as more of a remote mobile platform, sort of like iRobot’s AVA 500, which incidentally is now part of a spinoff called Ava Robotics. We should find out over the next year or so, as BeamPro 2 goes on sale this summer.
[ Suitable Technologies ]
CES 2018: Suitable Tech Introduces BeamPro 2 Telepresence Platform syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP
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