{"id":55814,"date":"2014-08-11T23:58:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T03:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=55814"},"modified":"2014-08-11T23:58:21","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T03:58:21","slug":"why-robots-will-solve-the-problems-of-delayed-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2014\/08\/why-robots-will-solve-the-problems-of-delayed-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Robots Will Solve the Problems of Delayed Trains"},"content":{"rendered":"
August 11, 2014<\/div>
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By MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

I was 40 minutes late into the office yesterday. Not because I’d slept in. Not because it was a Monday.<\/p>\n

It was because of a ‘signal fault’ in between Wimbledon and Clapham Junction railway stations.<\/p>\n

A ‘signal fault’. I’m guessing what that means is the train signals weren’t working. So instead of red, yellow and green…it was nothing. Now, on possibly one of the world’s busiest metropolitan train lines, this isn’t a good thing.<\/p>\n

We can’t just have trains going willy-nilly all over the place. That’s just cause for disaster.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t have many alternatives. Driving in would take at least another hour and a half probably. Peak hour in London isn’t all that different to peak hour in the middle of Mumbai.<\/p>

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I couldn’t get the bus; that’s just the same as the car, except smellier and full of more people I don’t want to talk to.<\/p>\n

Walking meant I would have gotten there after dark. And riding a bike would mean having to join the MAMIL crew (Google search MAMIL if you’re unsure what I mean).<\/p>\n

In my boredom at the train station I messaged Hayley. She just suggested I work from home. Now that was a valid point at the time. But I didn’t really want to work from home.<\/p>\n

I don’t really like working from home at all. Don’t get me wrong, my cat is brilliant to talk to. Unfortunately, it’s always a one-way conversation.<\/p>\n

The reason I like going into the office is people. Working in solitude can be beneficial from time to time, but more often than not it sucks. <\/p>\n

I continued to stand on the platform, in two minds. Do I work from home, go stir crazy, talk to the cat…and eventually, actually go crazy? Or do I stand it out here and hope for a train sometime in the next hour?<\/p>\n

Well I didn’t have to think too long. 10 minutes later, an express train came along, and I eventually made it in to Waterloo station and the office.<\/p>\n

But it got me thinking. What if you could combine the benefits of working in the office with the benefits of working at home?<\/p>\n

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RoboSam signing on for the day<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Is there a way that I could effectively do my job from home, from a beach in Cabo San Lucas or from base camp at Everest, yet still feel and interact like I was in the office?<\/p>\n

I decided no, there wasn’t a way to do that…yet. But it’s the kind of technology that perhaps is only just around the corner<\/a>. Perhaps it’s the combination of already existing technologies that will achieve my vision. It would make businesses more efficient, more profitable and in turn, better performing for shareholders.<\/p>\n

I’ve been quite critical of the re-release of virtual reality technology<\/a> recently. I still believe it has limited use in the real world. It could be handy for gaming, but it could also be handy if we combined it with remote robotic technology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It might mean instead of burning 40 minutes on the train platform, I could have gone home, logged into the work ‘remote bot’ and been able to interact with people in the office almost as if I was there.<\/p>\n

It would work like this…<\/p>\n

There’s a workplace. This workplace could be in any city in the world.<\/p>\n

In the workplace, there’s a little rack of robots<\/strong>. These robots have wheels, and a little screen for a face. In some situations, they might also have little extendable arms, so they can move things around if need be.<\/p>\n

Let’s say, like today, public transport fails me. And lets say I’m a specialist engineer of some kind — the kind of specialist that means I’m the only one in that office that can do the job. There’s another guy like me but he’s on the other side of the world, and he’s working in that office anyway.<\/p>\n

Today of all days is the deadline for our project, and I literally cannot get into the workplace to finish the job. It’s impossible. Not being able to finish the job means we miss the deadline and the company misses out on a big contract.<\/p>\n

However, I can log into one of the robots in the workplace from home. I simply plug into my VR workstation and a robot comes to life in the workplace. I then manoeuvre my way to my workstation as though I were there, and simply get to work.<\/p>\n

If it helps you picture it, it would look something like this (but far more beautifully designed)…<\/p>\n

\"Remote
Source: vg247.com<\/em><\/div>\n

This way I can complete the project, the business gets that big contract, and everyone’s happy.<\/p>\n

Or in another scenario, I’m unable to log into the robot from anywhere. I might be sick, or (drawing on recent experience) stuck at an airport with a delayed plane.<\/p>\n

What happens in that case? Well, it’s a remote access robot, remember. That means the other specialist on the other side of the world can log on to finish the job. He connects remotely to the robot and does the work as if he were there<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Again, everyone wins, and the other specialist might even get an overtime bonus.<\/p>\n

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One doctor around the world in an afternoon<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

This might sound a little crazy to you. But you could roll this remote access out across almost an industry you can think of. <\/p>\n

Remember the days when the substitute teacher came into class? It usually meant a whole day of doing stuff all. They had no idea where we were with the lessons. And none of us gave them the time of day anyway. Talk about a waste of time…<\/p>\n

But what if our regular teacher was able to just log into a remote robot and come to class as usual? Having a robot wheel around the classroom would almost be preferable to the teacher.<\/p>\n

Right now there are companies that make these kinds of robots, companies that allow you to connect from any location with an internet connection to a remote access robot.<\/p>\n

You could be a teacher or a doctor and be present with your students or patients. Sure you’re not there physically, but you’re still there. iRobot [NASDAQ:IRBT]<\/strong> is one company that makes these kinds of robots.<\/p>\n

Their RP-VITA robot is a remote presence robot. It’s in use now by doctors and even has FDA clearance.<\/p>\n

Imagine the possibilities if every school, every hospital, every workplace had just one remote robot. It would mean a heart surgeon in Berlin could consult with a patient in Atlanta, then 20 minutes later with someone in Melbourne and after that in Reykjavik.<\/p>\n

The hardware needed on one end is the kind of virtual reality hardware companies like Oculus Rift and Sony are working on right now. And as for the robots? Well they’re already ready to go.<\/p>\n

But this kind of tech is literally only just coming to market now. Which means for the companies working on it, big things could be on the way.<\/p>\n

Of course with companies like iRobot, everyone knows about it. So it’s probably not all that new to you. There are other companies in robotics you probably haven’t heard of. And those are the ones that really make money for smart investors.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Regards,<\/p>\n

Sam Volkering+<\/a><\/strong>
\n Technology Analyst, Revolutionary Tech Investor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ed note:<\/strong> The above article was originally published in Tech Insider<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nJoin Money Morning on Google+ <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Why Robots Will Solve the Problems of Delayed Trains<\/a> appeared first on Stock Market News, Finance and Investments | Money Morning Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nBy MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au I was 40 minutes late into the office yesterday. Not because I’d slept in. Not because it was a Monday. It was because of a ‘signal fault’ in between Wimbledon and Clapham Junction railway stations. A ‘signal fault’. I’m guessing what that means is the train signals weren’t working. So instead of red, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}