Mobile World Congress – the Congress that could have been.
Being there: it sounds cliché, until you actually cannot be there. So we unpack our bags and cancel the transport and accommodation we had readied for Barcelona.
Just a few short months ago, we unpacked these same bags as we returned home from China´s biggest tech fair, CIIE, where we were fortunate to partner with Infineon technologies in exhibiting their latest applications embedded in our beloved Roboy. Back then, nobody could guess these bags would have to stay stowed away as the next event we prepared for would get cancelled. We think fondly of CIIE and China, an amazing country which we loved at first sight when we were there only three months ago, with its delicious cuisine, busy cities, and friendly people. It hurts our hearts now to see reports of these cities empty, of life quieted in its otherwise bustling tracks, of fear replacing the friendliness. And even though we are thousands of kilometers away, our thoughts keep returning to our friends, our former students, and collaborators there and in Hong Kong, always close to our minds.
Yesterday, GSMA was forced to cancel the Mobile World Congress, amidst a flurry of worried companies retreating from the event in concern for the safety of their employees due to the Covid19 virus. This saddens us immensely. True, we were more than excited for it, as this was going to be the place where we were planning to finally unveil our newest robot child, Roboy 3.0. But we will miss all the amazing people we will not meet, the hugs our robot will not be able to give and the spirit of community we cannot pay forward. It would’ve been especially welcome in these uncertain times.
The cancellation and situation around the fast spreading virus also reinforces how important the technology is that we are working on right now, which we will be unveiling over the coming months.
Roboy is competing in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE. A prize won by whomever builds the best system that teleports your presence to another place without you having to actually go there. So you feel and interact with the world, as if you were somewhere else, but actually stay in the safety of your current environment. It works by wearing a suit to control a robot that transmits how you move to a robot, and what the robot sees, hears and feels is sent back to you.
While this physical separation yields obvious value for doctors and nurses who can treat (for example quarantined) patients without being at risk themselves, we think of this one step further: how to feel close, when we are unable to be close physically.
"we think one step further: how to feel close, when we are unable to be close physically"
The best we can do today to feel close to a loved one is via our phones and video chat. But we feel clearly physically separated as we cannot touch the other person – we cannot place an arm on someone´s shoulder in an act of support, we cannot feel the reassuring grip of a handshake, we cannot lift a person fallen on their knees. Voice and vision can only do that much for closing the distance. We are whole body human beings. We need whole body humanoid avatar systems that transport all of the human being´s range of senses.
But there is far more to that than the fancy system, the complex tech talk, and in these times where solidarity is called for more than perhaps ever before, it is not simply an avatar system we want to offer you. What we are working on is for new ways of ensuring that, come what may, we will be there for each other – not in words, not in our thoughts, not in the proverbial and less than effective spirit but truly, materially being there with our senses, to offer a helping hand when it is most needed.
As engineers, our ambition is to create the best humanoid robot possible, a task costly in money, effort, and time and immensely valuable for its applicability (applicability which circumstances appear to precipitate on all of us). But as citizens of the world and as human beings what matters to us is to create not tech which simply closes distances faster more fancily. What matters is relationships. What matters is being there. And above all, being there for each other.
Authors: Rafael Hostettler, Lora Koycheva
Global Campaign & Content Marketing Manager bei Infineon Technologies
4yGreat article, Rafa & Lora! Very emotional and yet with a sense of techie-rationality behind it. Love your vision & funny enough,today in the office we were discussing how cool and practical it could have been if Roboy‘d have gone to the trade show and still tell our joint story. Looking forward meeting Mr. 3.0 soon ☺️
Executive Vice President at Bragi
4yI agree, but perhaps that gives us time to discuss the future here in München!
Content Creator | AI & Tech Geek | Marketing & LinkedIn Fanatic | Out to help others tell a legendary story
4ywhere is the sad emoji, LinkedIn. I'm sorry to hear about the cancellation!