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So, it's a Segway with FaceTime? The main question is why? Even the video can't seem to find a decent use case. The art gallery idea is ridiculous, why would yo

by hnriot 14y ago

So, it's a Segway with FaceTime? The main question is why? Even the video can't seem to find a decent use case. The art gallery idea is ridiculous, why would you physically control a robot that wanders an art gallery when the gallery has a website? Also have you ever tried actually wandering around a gallery? The robot wouldn't stand a chance. What happens when someone knocks it over? In the workplace this would just be embarrassing. Not to mention a security threat, there's no way any serious corporation would allow roaming cameras in their offices. If I put my idealist hat on and try to imagine the future with these, I keep coming back to those Segway videos of the hype of a new kind of city, a new kind of transportation. This really is a technology in search of a use case, that isn't already being addressed. I read comments that say they would use these to attend meetings, how does this robot compare to Cisco's video conferencing, or FaceTime or even just calling in from the car/home. At work we use screen sharing and audio/visual conferencing which seems to work just fine, and where it doesn't it will evolve. I'm wondering how this robot would push the elevator button to get to a meeting on another floor? There are just so many problems with this idea, not the least of which is who would actually buy one.

pg 14y ago
It's been useful already. One of the founders was out of town at the last YC dinner and but he participated in a conversation in the lobby with me and his cofounder through a Double. He wouldn't have been able to if he'd been using a standard teleconferencing setup, because it wasn't a pre-arranged meeting. In my experience, many if not most of the most important conversations are not pre-arranged meetings. If you use existing teleconferencing technology you miss them all, and if you use a Double you don't. That's a qualitative change.
- deleted 14y ago
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- kdsudac 14y ago
  Pre-arranged meetings are the first thing that jumps into people's minds, but do telecommuters really want to replicate the experience of being in meetings? For me, one of the nicer aspects of telecommuting is I can call into meetings and during portions of the meeting that don't apply to me (or are boring) I can work (or surf the web). On the other hand, people do have a love/hate relationship with meetings: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519462810425677.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519462810425677.html I can buy into the importance of impromptu meetings. I wonder if the Double team can figure out a way to market around impromptu vs pre-arranged meetings and love/hate meetings without alienating too many people.

by hnriot 14y ago

pg 14y ago

It's been useful already. One of the founders was out of town at the last YC dinner and but he participated in a conversation in the lobby with me and his cofounder through a Double. He wouldn't have been able to if he'd been using a standard teleconferencing setup, because it wasn't a pre-arranged meeting. In my experience, many if not most of the most important conversations are not pre-arranged meetings. If you use existing teleconferencing technology you miss them all, and if you use a Double you don't. That's a qualitative change.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
kdsudac 14y ago
Pre-arranged meetings are the first thing that jumps into people's minds, but do telecommuters really want to replicate the experience of being in meetings? For me, one of the nicer aspects of telecommuting is I can call into meetings and during portions of the meeting that don't apply to me (or are boring) I can work (or surf the web). On the other hand, people do have a love/hate relationship with meetings: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519462810425677.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519462810425677.html I can buy into the importance of impromptu meetings. I wonder if the Double team can figure out a way to market around impromptu vs pre-arranged meetings and love/hate meetings without alienating too many people.