What can you do for those times when you need to be in the office, but you just can't make it? How about having a robot go in your place? That's the idea with Double, a telepresence robot that works with the iPad.
Double is an iPad stand on wheels. The "head" provides a snug fit for a regular-sized iPad, which you must provide. The iPad connects to Double via Bluetooth, and the iPad's camera and microphone provide video and audio to the controller.
IMAGE: ROBERT CARDIN
Double requires a connection to the Internet. The Double Robotics server is the hub for commands and video flowing to and from the controller. The video is encrypted using the WebRTC 128-bit AES encrypted video standard.
The Double iPhone app had no problems controlling the robot while I was standing in the middle of a soccer field.
In less than 10 minutes, I was up and running with Double—the setup was so easy, I felt like I missed something. To control the robot, You need another iPad or an iPhone and the free iOS app for iPhone or iPad, or you can use the Web-based controls via Google Chrome. (The WebTRC protocol that Double uses isn't supported by Safari.) You tap the up and down arrows to go forward and backwards, and the right and left arrow buttons to turn in the respective directions. When using Google Chrome, you can use the arrow keys on your computer's keyboard.
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