DailyTech - Man Makes Robot Go to Work for Him

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Blog: Gadgets Man Makes Robot Go to Work for Him
Jason Mick (Blog) - September 5, 2007 10:15 AM

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9 comment(s) - last by MrPickins.. on Sep 6 at 1:54 PM

Programmer Ivan Bowman came up with a futuristic solution, to an untenable long commute... make a remote-control helper to take his place in the office.

The little robot IvanAnywhere (pictured) consists of a hodgepodge of a coat rack, cardboard box, camera, display, microphone, and speakers. And while it is a motley looking device it has been taken in warmly as a coworker by the workers of iAnywhere Solutions Inc., located in Waterloo, Canada.

The Waterloo paper, The Record reports that inventor Ivan Bowman has worked for the database software company since 1993, when, five years ago, his wife decided to get a job in Halifax. Forced to move, Ivan was allowed to keep his job, and telecommute, writing code from over a thousand miles away. However, he could not communicate well with his coworkers about projects. He tried telephone conference calls, but it just was not the same as personal interactions.

So he did what any logical person would do--he created a digital copy of himself.

Ivan's boss Glenn Paulley, originated the idea, when he quipped:
"Wouldn't it be cool if we could string a webcam to the bottom of a blimp, and Ivan would be able to float wherever he wanted?"

Everyone laughed, but soon the idea had evolved from a joke about a blimp into a moving, talking machine, control by Ivan.

While the word robot is often used to refer to autonomously operating machines, the term feels natural to use with IvanAnywhere, despite the fact that it is remote controlled.

Despite its pieced together configuration, IvanAnywhere was carefully designed and works quite well. It does its job and even finds time to occasionally hobnob with visitors to the building, outside the third floor where it "works" (though it has never left the building).

Most days Ivan's biggest fear for his robotic counterpart is that the batteries will die. Ivan and the machine are hard workers, and work long hours. At night, he often roams the hallways with the device, looking for someone to plug him in.

While the machine has never left the building, a social life may soon be coming up--it wants to attend the next corporate barbecue. Inventor and controller, Ivan still hasn't figured out how IvanAnywhere is going to eat hot dogs, but for now he can do about anything else that his company might require, with the help of his trusty robotic assistant.

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that is AWESOME

By Quiksel on 9/5/2007 11:12:52 AM , Rating: 2

now you CAN be in two places at once.

~q

RE: that is AWESOME

By Moishe on 9/5/2007 11:33:17 AM , Rating: 2

I like the idea that they let him do this, and that it's used as a physical presence in the room rather than trying to literally fill his work role. He still "works" programming from home, but the bot fills in at meetings, etc.

I want one :)

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RE: that is AWESOME

By chuck232 on 9/5/2007 12:01:20 PM , Rating: 4

Yep, you're correct. It was designed so that he could have a presence in meetings and so forth. I guess you could look at it like video conferencing, but with even more.... personality.

I had the chance to see and interact with 'IvanAnywhere' during my co-op at Sybase iAnywhere this past summer. Needless to say, they aren't exaggerating when they say function over form. Still, it was very impressive, the webcam at the top can move so that he can take a look at more things on a vertical axis as well. He doesn't exactly move too quickly. Navigating corners in the building is especially funny to watch. He wheels forward a bit, pans around with the cam, then moves a little more. Rinse, repeat.

I remember one time when he came down to the first floor for our monthly celebrations of birthdays and other milestones, he got stuck in the elevator. I presume the connection was severed while he was in there. In any case, an employee had to half push, half carry him out of the elevator so that he could be rebooted. Good times. :)

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