Category Archives: Home Telepresence
2012
Telepresence Robots Expand Post-Surgical Care Into The Home
Medical telepresence continues to change how patients access health care across the United States. One of the more cutting edge developments in medical video communications has to do with post-operative care. Specifically, Children’s Hospital Boston is now sending telepresence robots home with patients in order to provide follow-up treatment after serious surgical procedures.
The robots, manufactured by a company called Vgo Communications, are designed to provide a direct link between practitioners at Children’s Hospital Boston and recuperating patients – one that eliminates the need for regular return visits to the facility.
As the video above reveals, the robots feature a five-inch telepresence display where a ‘face’ would normally be found, and this interface works in combination with a high definition camera, microphone, and speaker system in order to help doctors and nurses keep in touch with patients at home. This includes not just direct conversations in order to report on recovery, symptoms, and pain, but also the ability to provide high resolution images of surgical wounds in order to track healing and spot any potential problems as early as possible. The robot is not an autonomous device, but one which is remotely controlled by hospital or clinic staff over the same cellular connection that it uses for communications purposes.
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2011
Telepresence As A Business Continuity Strategy
Few events are as jarring to a business as losing communication with its key decision-makers – an eventuality that more and more companies are preparing for by turning toward telepresence. In an era where even the smallest hesitation can result in a costly missed opportunity, organizations are bolstering their executive and management communications strategies with a larger telepresence element designed to maintain business continuity in the face of extenuating circumstances.
Mobile video conferencing offers companies the opportunity to maintain contact with their most important employees, including C-level executives, should an emergency situation occur. The threat posed by a natural disaster or disruptive local or even global event that interferes with the ability of workers to access an important facility is one which all companies must plan for. Whether it’s a local flood that renders a satellite office inaccessible or whether a volcano erupting in Iceland grinds worldwide air travel to a halt, business continuity in the event of such a scenario depends on establishing the best possible communication between key members of an organization.
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2011
Cisco TelePresence Allows ESPN to Bring Fans Closer to Their Heroes
Cisco TelePresence already has a high profile in professional sports, with partnerships between Cisco and the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) having borne impressive fruit for both fans and sports insiders alike. Cisco recently decided to expand its telepresence reach into the world of college sports, working together with ESPN in order to create a unique telepresence experience for college basketball and football fans.
“Difference Makers: Life Lessons from Paterno and Krzyzewski” was a televised special that linked two of the most respected names in NCAA coaching with their fans. Mike Krzyzewski has coached the Duke Blue Devils basketball team at Duke University since 1980, leading them to four NCAA Championships along with an impressive list of regular season titles and ACC championships. He has also coached at the Olympic level as both an assistant and a head coach. His counterpart on the ESPN special, Joe Paterno, has had an equally hallowed career as a football coach at Penn State University, having been a part of the team’s staff for an incredible 61 seasons.
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2010
Cisco ūmi Brings Home Telepresence To The Masses
Cisco is leading the movement to bring high definition, home telepresence to the masses. Specifically, Cisco ūmi is one of the first “telepresence-in-a-box” solutions to be offered to consumers that combines an easy to use interface and setup with uncompromised video conferencing quality.
The Cisco ūmi package consists of a console, a remote control and an HD video camera that is designed to be mounted on top of a standard HD television set. Once linked to a broadband internet connection (wired or wireless), ūmi can make calls to other ūmi devices around the world as well as connect with Google video chat users, even if they are using a standard definition web cam. In addition to 1080p HD telepresence, ūmi also allows for the creation of video email messages and Youtube and Facebook uploads.
Cisco can most likely count on strong adoption rates outside of the United States, especially in southeast Asia where high tech communications networks are far more integrated into the daily lives of consumers. Although American consumers are less familiar with home video conferencing products, the popularity of Cisco ūmi should increase as more and more families and individuals discover how easy it can be to stay in video touch with loved ones across great distances.
The key aspect of Cisco ūmi is how it expands telepresence opportunities beyond the corporate environment to personal settings like the family living room. Not only does this create a more inclusive HD video conferencing experience, but it also encourages casual video conferencing use without the high tech associations that come with logging on to a PC or a laptop.
Public perception has long been that only large companies can afford the bandwidth and equipment requirements to run a legitimate HD video conferencing setup, but Cisco ūmi easily proves that home-based telepresence is here, making this technology accessible in both business and personal settings.
Benjamin Hunting
KBZ Blogging Team
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