Teenager Attends High School as a Robot

Over at Neatorama, we've mentioned the development of robotic avatars -- robots that could attend meetings and conferences in place of the physical presence of their controllers. Lyndon Baty of Knox City, Texas, uses one of them, but he's not a business traveler. He's a high school freshman with a diminished immune system. It's not safe for him to attend school in person, so he maneuvers a robot around school from the safety of his own home:

The Vgo telepresence platform is a four foot tall bot on wheels with a small screen, camera, speakers and microphone at the top. Baty logs into the robot remotely from his home, using his PC and a webcam to teleconference into his classes. Baty can drive Vgo around his school, switching between classes just like regular students. For a boy that has spent much of his life sick and isolated from his peers, Vgo not only represents a chance at a better education, it’s also an opportunity for freedom and comradery.

There's a video at the link.

Link via slashdot | Image: KFDX News