In this video I show a product demo of TOBY the telepresence robot. You can see the robot being controlled remotely over the internet with a mobile phone interface.
This prototype is purposefully crude... no industrial design was applied here. Instead, the purpose was to explore the engineering required to drive a robot from a remote location, and what range of motion would be needed to be a productive office companion.
I believe there is a fundamental human need to be in more than one place at a time. When I built this prototype I was flying between LA and NYC too often, leaving my wife and newborn girl at home.
What I wanted was to send an emmisary in my place, so I created TOBY: Telepresent Object Beyond Yourself. I also wanted to reduce my carbon footprint by not requiring travel for every meeting, but I still wanted the same level of interaction with my co-workers: seeing eye to eye, exploring concepts and ideas on the whiteboard, etc.