>From: "Emlyn O'Regan" <emlyn@one.net.au>
>Subject: Re: Teleoperation
>Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 18:44:47 +1000
>
>All this talk of "humbots"; horrible.
Yeah, I thought it was an ugly term, myself, just couldn't come up with
anything off the cuff that was less ambiguous. BTW, I didn't find anything
to disagree with in what you say, so I almost didn't respond. But, then, I
thought, should I only reinforce disagreements?
>I'd lean toward the name "teleoperative> Not a bad idea, altho I'm not
>sure that it isn't already in use for other things.
>To even achieve decent mid-range control factors, we are going to need good
>wireless comms; bandwidth! In Australia, I know I can only get 9600bps over
>a mobile-phone link; I'm not sure what other technologies are available
>here. 9600bps is not enough. I think some newer, better data options are
>coming online soon; I'm going to keep an eye on that. What's the situation
>in the US? What sort of data rates are available? What's on the way? I
>think
>we really need realtime video to make this plausible; probably a way off.
>Although there are possibilities even without it; you've got relatively
>decent, affordable audio if you can get to 56K, so the teleoperative has to
>be your eyes. Still, there's a dedicated person on-site, working on your
>behalf; better than a conference call.
>
>I'm interested in the state of wireless comms in the US, mainly. What's an
>affordable data rate (say using cellular networks), and what are the
>charges
>like? How about if money was no object; what kind of bandwidth could we put
>between a teleoperator on one side of the world, and a teleoperative on the
>other?
In the mid-80's, Vivid had Mandala running between the continents, with
French executives batting a virtual birds who flew over into the New York
execs screen - but they were using dedicated cable. However, the X-10
people have a little RF battery-operated Video plus Audio camera available
for $69, with a limited range, to-be-sure (about 100'). A couple such
cameras - and there are many manufacturers of such with better range,
resolution, etc. - would give you the main data feed from the
"teleoperative."
The signals could then feed into a pair of computers - X10 already supplies
the interface/software - and be sent out hi-end DSL. Using off-the-shelf
hi-bandwidth local RF going to a landline/satellite instead of current
cellphone tech, the bandwidth is virtually unlimited for our purposes.
Trying to do it using just WAP would be fairly unsatisfactory at present, I
suspect.
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