Botiful: The Social Telepresence Robot

Remote-controlled robots are commonplace, so it'd take a pretty specialised concept for us to pay attention.  This is where Botiful comes in: a "social telepresence robot" that can be controlled during a Skype call to move yourself through the world of who you are connected to, making you remotely present from anywhere in the world.

It's easily connected to your Android phone via Bluetooth or USB, and any size of phone fits handily in the cut-out slot, to make two-way chats all the more better.  I understand the natural circumstances that this would perfectly fit into: surveillance, baby monitoring, being able to mess with the family.  I'm skeptical of this in a business meeting atmosphere or catching up with friends over drinks, as I'd find the initial use to be a rather needless layer on top of the processes of sharp-nosed businessmen, and the latter to be....kind of sad.  But the founder is right in saying uses are as far as your imagination goes, as she demonstrates checking the undersire of a car.

The project requires $90,000 before August 22nd, and is already under just under $69,000 as of writing this piece.  Botiful is already functional with all hardware design, software construction and Skype configurations all in place after being designed out of a garage in California.  An SDK is coming soon, to allow for more creative ideas beyond mimicking movements for 'yes' or 'no' and dancing, so it'll be interesting to see what developers do with this.

Source: Kickstarter