Lyndon Baty is a high school freshman from Texas who had to do all his schoolwork away from school last year due to his immune system being severely compromised by Polycystic Kidney Disease. He tells “All of last year, I was either in the hospital or at home doing all my work. I had no social interaction whatsoever.” This year, that’s changed. He’s getting regular social interaction with classmates thanks to a remote-controlled VGO telepresence robot. Unlike the creepy spermbot we wrote about last year, this telepresence robot does far more than give us nightmares. Baty has been able to attend classes without being exposed to the germs that could kill him.
“My best friends were my parents. No offense against them, but I want other friends,” said Lyndon. “I feel like I’m right there,” continued Lyndon, “like I’m right at the school.” [WBIR]
His robot surrogate is self-balancing and four feet tall with a battery life of 8 hours. It cost about $6000 (plus $100 per month for the service contract), significantly less than many other telepresence robots. The interview with Baty is after the jump, along with a photo representing what would totally happen if his robot surrogate got into a schoolyard brawl.
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[Hat tip and precious lug nuts to Moviefone, SingularityHub, and Engadget.]