Santa Monica Inventor Selling Real-Life 'Avatars'
SANTA MONICA (CBS) — After at least an hour in grueling rush hour traffic, only to face a boss irate that you're late again, a $10,000 robot to take your place at the workplace sounds like he's worth every penny.
It's reality, too – a Santa Monica inventor has developed a robot that goes to work for you, as you lounge at home or even go on vacation.
TiLR is the brainchild of Fred Nikgohar, founder and CEO of RoboDynamics Corp. Nikgohar has built a robot that can be controlled from anywhere with a laptop or 4G mobile phone, a sort of "Avatar" or "Surrogate."
With the use of this robot, a boss in Los Angeles can check in on a factory in Chicago, DC or even Mumbai with just a few keystrokes.
"A guy can literally be transported – his likeness and his being – to those remote locations through the use of the robot," Nikgohar says.
Anyone in the office will be able to see who they are working with. They will be able to have a two-way conversation using the camera on the robot. RoboDynamics has sold a number of bosses on this idea. The boss can watch employees from anywhere they are.
The robots cost $10,000 a piece, but Nikgohar gives a new boss one to play with to try it out. If they like it, they buy it; if not, they put it back in a box and send it back.
"We either work with very small companies who have a need to reduce travel or work with very, very big companies with a need to reduce travel," Nikgohar says.
He adds when they put the robot in place on a Monday, by Friday people in the office stop calling it robot and start calling it by the name of the user.
"Even though a remote person is reachable through phone or email or Skype," Nikgohar says, "People would still get up from their cubicles and look for the robot."
Learn more about TiLR or follow Nikgohar on Twitter.
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