Robob is a robot that can be controlled trough the internet. By logging in, Robob becomes your physical avatar. Robob can be disguised as anything: a puppet on a bar chair or a hitchhiking Furby.
Robob is a telepresence project. It works by adding speech and recognizable humanoid features to a webcam. By optimizing the web interface it becomes possible to put your soul in Robob. You are Robob.
Originally it all started because websites are so boring. Visiting companies and organizations on the web is making contact with a small piece of hard-disk. It feels dead.
The first Robob is constructed from an old stereo-tower and designed as a prototype of R2-D2. It can speak, kiss, ignite a lamp, make pictures, express emoticons and move its head to look around. If more than one person logs in, the robot gets the multiple personality syndrome.
The second Robob we made is Rolbob. Rolbob is a cheap remote controlled car on which we mounted a wireless camera. Everything is hooked onto a Robob web-server. We want to implement this project in a hospital for temporally handicapped children.
Simcity 2008 asked us to work on a netart project. We are experimenting with wireless materials that should make it possible to make a Robob out of a real person. This way we can make something like Real Sims, Online candid camera or a new sort of escort service.
At Robodock 2007 we made 3 Robobs disguised as security cameras. They where fitted with water canons and could be controlled from a public center.
In the future we want to make a Robob network. The aim is to make it possible to see and speak to the world without travelling. We will publish a Linux startup cdrom with the Robob software. Everybody will be able to make a personal Robob with an old computer. All Robobs will be available though one portal.
The Robob team: Piebe de Vries, Roger Koot and Erik Groen