Deskoid Robotic PC System is a techno tower of Babel

In my capacity as VIA Robotics Program Manager one of the major ideas we are trying to convince the robotic community of is the need for x86 architecture. We have a vested interest in this idea of course but also we believe the standards, connectivity options, processing power and pricing are right for the robotics industry. Because VIA's design principals also include small, fanless, low power drawing properties, we believe we have the edge over other x86 solution providers.

While there are many different robotic design and concept possibilities that can be based around x86 architecture one of the interesting categories that is slowly emerging is that of the PC-Bots. While many robots are designed to do a particular task, PC-Bots do what you PC does and then extend its functionality by adding a few robotic touches. White Box Robotics 912 series of robots due out later this year, are a perfect example. RoboDynamics will likely be coming out this year with a Robotic Personal Assistant that is also based around a PC platform.

Wayne Chiang has given the PC-Bot concept a lot of thought and has come up with his own unique approach developing what he calls a Deskoid Robotic PC, which marries the PC, robotics and the desk itself to create a useful, multifunctional tool that he feels may introduce the furniture industry into robotics. The Deskoid Robotic PC would take advantage of several well developed PC based technologies such as web cams, VOIP (Skype for instance) to further enhance its functionality. The Deskoid Robotics PC would be used for remote security monitoring, long distance eLearning, AV-appliance integration, mobile videoconferencing or even robotic photography.

The Deskoid Robotics PC has its own blog/website that is an illustrated guide through the design and conceptualization process of this truly unique PC-Bot.

A briefer Chinese version of the website can be found here.