End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

Revolve Robotics Kubi: Telepresence Robot or PTZ mount?

kubi-telepresence-robot-holding-surface-proTablets are everywhere these days. In the early I’m morning often seen sitting on our front porch reading news on my Nexus 7.

I occasionally used both the Nexus 7 and an iPad to make video calls using Polycom RealPresence Mobile. I’ve even joined a Google Hangout from a tablet.

Tablets are not exactly video end-points. Holding them up in front of one’s self is tedious, especially for calls of any duration. Propping them up against things is unreliable and leads to unflattering camera angles.

Revolve Robotics hopes to improve this situation. They are about to ship their KUBI device, which is essentially a robotic PTZ mount for common tablets.

Perhaps “PTZ” is not quite appropriate since it normally means pan, tilt and zoom. Tablets don’t have zoom lenses, but KUBI does support rotation, making it perhaps a PTR mount?

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Chromecast In Da House

Chromecast-Sharp-Aquos-42inchIn the first day or two of its release I ordered a Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player via Amazon, and was lucky enough to actually get one delivered. We’ve been living with it for a few weeks now, and have some thoughts to share.

At the outset let me say that we’re reasonably well-serviced when it comes to TV & movies. We have two HDTVs, each paired to a second generation TivoHD. We do not partake of any kind of surround sound playback. It simply wasn’t desired.

As TivoHD users we have Comcast Cable TV with a generous, if costly, package of channels. We also watch Netflix streams and use Amazon Unbox downloads.

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Video Calling 3: Brightlines I/S-22 LED Conference Lamp

i-Series-with-desk-clamp1 copyIt’s been a month or more since I took delivery of a Brightlines I/S-22 light for use in my working life. I noted it’s arrival to my small circle of associates, who seem to be happy with the result. With the I/2-22 providing even fill lighting I’ve not appeared as a disembodied head on any video calls.

As was mentioned previously, the I/S-22 has three possible mounting options; a VESA bracket with a 6” gooseneck, a table clamp with a 22” long gooseneck, or a heavy round base with that same 22” gooseneck.

The VESA mount allows the light to be  mounted to the back of a monitor, presuming that the monitor is not itself mounted to a VESA type arrangement.

My situation seemed best addressed by the long gooseneck with the table clamp. This allows me to mount the light to the edge of the table immediately behind the HDX-4500. The HDX is a large and rather heavy device, and does not have VESA type mounting holes. Happily the I/S-22 on the long gooseneck rises to an appropriate height, about 4 inches above the top of the HDX.

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LifeSize On WebRTC

LifeSize_Icon_SeriesLast week LifeSize had a webinar on the topic of WebRTC. I took an hour to listen to what they had to say and pose a couple of questions. Their target audience appeared to be people who might have heard some of the hype about WebRTC, but were not otherwise familiar with this new phenomenon. Suffice it to say that the material covered was introductory.

The webinar started with a pre-recorded video of Casey King, LifeSize CTO and Simon Dudley, who is described as LifeSize video evangelist. Their pre-recorded conversation was followed by an audio-only live segment where they answered questions arising from the audience, which was reported to be over 1000 people.

If you care to view the event after the fact you’ll find a recording of the webinar here.

During the live event I posed a couple of questions in the text chat. I asked if they had any plans to support the Opus audio codec and VP8 video codec. These are core aspects of WebRTC, although the debate about whether VP8 or H.264 should be “mandatory” rages on.

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PLT Labs: Plantronics New Skunk Works

plantronics-voyager-legend-bluetooth-headset-300Plantronics has recently opened PLT Labs, a skunk works intended to help developers access the functions of the new generation of wearable technology. They propose to offer access to the new APIs exposed by prototype devices.

One of the more magical feature of the Plantronics Voyager Legend is the way it knows when you’re wearing it. If the headset is paired to my cell phone and I’m wearing the headset it will answer an incoming call.

If I’m not wearing the headset and I answer the phone using the handset itself, the headset knows to not involve itself in the media handling. It remains paired but switches the phone out of headset mode.

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