[tt] DIY telepresence

[Eugen Leitl]

http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/236315

Meet IvanAnywhere  TheRecord.com - Business - Meet IvanAnywhere

It's the next best thing to being there; He'll write software, attend
meetings and even chat with co-workers. Just don't expect this digital marvel
to share a cup of coffee during your next break

MATT WALCOFF

RECORD STAFF

WATERLOO

Programmer Ivan Bowman spends his days at iAnywhere Solutions Inc. in much
the same way his colleagues do.

He writes code, exchanges notes in other developers' offices, attends
meetings and, on occasion, hangs out in the kitchen or lounge over coffee and
snacks.

About the only thing he can't do is drink the coffee or eat the snacks -- or
touch anything, for that matter.

It's not that Bowman doesn't have hands or a mouth; they're just in Halifax,
along with the rest of his body.

In fact, it's not really Bowman in the Waterloo office at all. It's
IvanAnywhere, a robot Bowman uses to interact with his colleagues in Waterloo
from his home office 1,350 kilometres away.

"Robot" is a bit of a stretch, actually. IvanAnywhere is basically a coat
rack on wheels with attached speakers, camera and touch-screen computer.

The computer screen displays a live shot of Bowman's face from his living
room in Nova Scotia.

But in the three months since IvanAnywhere first went online, he has become
such a normal part of the third floor at iAnywhere that co-workers barely
even notice they're talking to a machine rather than to Bowman's human form.

"We are all so used to Ivan, they don't even give it a second thought," says
Glenn Paulley, Bowman's boss and the originator of the IvanAnywhere idea.

When Bowman has a question for a colleague, he doesn't pick up the phone; he
uses his joystick to drive his doppelganger to the team member's office.

If Paulley needs Bowman's time on a software issue, he calls IvanAnywhere to
his office, just as he would with any other employee.

Bowman uses IvanAnywhere to take part in meetings, even giving presentations
with the help of a projector.

Every once in a while, he'll motor to the floor's lounge area to look out the
window and chat with passersby, much as he would if he were in Waterloo.

Bowman has worked for the database software company since 1993. Five years
ago, when his wife got a job in Halifax, his employers allowed him to follow
her east and telecommute.

While Bowman could type out code as well in Halifax as he could in Waterloo,
he was missing out on the personal give-and-take essential to the flow of
ideas.

"We were, and we still operate really as, a small software development team
where a lot of the collaboration happens face-to-face," Paulley says. "When
it comes to coming up with an idea, we're almost always in each other's
offices."

Bowman tried participating in meetings via speakerphone but suffered from the
inability to see his colleagues or what they were scribbling on the
whiteboard.

Co-workers set up a webcam with a speaker, which they kept in a corner of the
office most of the day; it proved to be just as frustrating for Bowman.

"The most irritating thing was the microphone I had," he says.

"I could hear people in the kitchen talking about something, and occasionally
I would have something I wanted to add to that, and not being there in
person, I couldn't do anything. I had to wait for them to come over to the
desk."

The solution to the restraints of telecommuting began as a whimsical
conversation Paulley had with programmer Ian McHardy two years ago after
seeing a television ad for a remote-control toy blimp.

"My first thought to Ian was, '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,' " Paulley says.

Everyone had a good laugh, and McHardy pointed out that while a blimp would
leak and crash into things, a robot might suit the task.

Over the following months, the programmers would bring up the robot idea
again when Bowman's absence was causing difficulties. Eventually, Paulley and
McHardy began seriously considering whether it would work.

Finally, McHardy, who toys with radio-controlled vehicles as a hobby, mounted
a webcam, screen and speakers on a radio-controlled truck last winter,
creating the first IvanAnywhere prototype.

The model racer didn't turn out to be an appropriate base for a robot; it was
too short and accelerated too quickly.

"The thing would, like, take off like a bat out of hell," Paulley says.

But the prototype proved that a robot could be controlled remotely over the
Internet with an ordinary webcam for vision.

McHardy spent some time over the next few months researching "telepresence,"
the academic term for systems that allow people to feel as if they are in a
remote location.

He read about other telepresence projects, such as robots designed at the
University of Toronto for hospitalized school pupils to virtually attend
classes and a French-made touch screen on wheels that serves as a robot tour
guide.

McHardy found a mobile base with wheels and 24-volt motors sold by SuperDroid
Robots Inc.

On top, he placed a cardboard box containing enough batteries to power the
robot for the workday and the wires and gadgetry needed to convert digital
instructions to analog controls.

Infrared proximity sensors are meant to prevent the machine from hitting the
walls, although he still crashes into a door frame now and then.

A simple aluminum bar almost two metres high sticks up from the base, with
the webcam, screen and speakers wrapped on below.

McHardy's only concession to esthetics is a grey foam ball stuck on the
robot's top.

The charitable way to describe IvanAnywhere is to say he is far more
impressive technically than visually.

With his exposed wires, masking tape and plastic ties, IvanAnywhere makes the
robot from Lost in Space look like Optimus Prime.

IvanAnywhere is a strictly utilitarian creation, Paulley says.

"The goal is not to make Ivan look like the haunted robot that walks and
talks," he says. "The idea is to give Ivan a physical presence in the
building."

The robot's coming-out party, and his first voyage off the third floor, came
at a co-worker's anniversary celebration in late May.

Some iAnywhere employees who had not been privy to IvanAnywhere's development
were shocked to find a computer-on-a-stick hobnobbing with the guests.

"There were a few people who thought this was just freaky," Paulley says.
"They were a little taken aback and didn't quite believe themselves that this
was actually Ivan, and he was actually there."

But as more people heard about the robot on Paulley's team, the third floor
became a stop on building tours.

Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer, Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran and
University of Waterloo president David Johnston have each visited to chat
with Bowman.

Like the other employees on the floor, IvanAnywhere has his own office of
sorts, a notch behind a cubicle with some batteries and a sign reminding the
last person in the office to plug the robot in before leaving.

IvanAnywhere's batteries need to be recharged daily, a fact forgotten by his
co-workers on at least one occasion.

"I was wandering the halls at night looking for somebody to plug me in,"
Bowman says.

IvanAnywhere has never left the iAnywhere building.

But there's no reason why he can't travel. The robot can work anywhere with
wireless Internet access.

Bowman says he would like to attend the next barbecue at Paulley's house,
although the team has yet to devise a way for him to be able to eat hotdogs
remotely.

Meanwhile, other telecommuting employees at iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase
Inc., have expressed interest in getting their own robots, Paulley says. In
the future, iAnywhere may look less like a software company and more like an
episode of Futurama.

mwalcoff at therecord.com

TO LEARN MORE

What:

Ivan Bowman will speak via the IvanAnywhere robot to a breakout session of
the University of Waterloo's upcoming conference, 2017: The Workplace.

When:

His presentation is to take place Oct. 15 at 2:15 p.m.

Where:

Sybase building in the UW Research and Technology Park.

Information:

For schedule and registration information, visit www.2017.uwaterloo.ca