You may be able to be “Lost in Space”

Cast of the 1960s series ‘Lost in Space’

Ever since I was a voracious science fiction reading young man, I had a knowing that my only shot at getting into space would probably be virtually. After experiencing my first virtual goggles at a SIGGRAPH show 15 years ago, I knew also that if the latency problem could be solved, that I might someday be able to have a robot act as my controlled proxy that I could manipulate and send around distant worlds — as though I was actually there.

Science fiction? Maybe not for long…

This article in New Scientist tells why this notion may not be so farfetched:

Technology that lets a human “inhabit” the body of a distant robot for remote exploration is being tested in Germany.

The robot sits on top of a wheeled platform and has an extendable arm that it uses to manipulate objects. An operator moves the robot around by simply walking or using a foot pedal and can see out of twin cameras positioned on the robot’s head after donning a head-mounted display.

The controller’s wrist is also connected to a touch sensitive (haptic) interface that controls the robot’s arm. Furthermore, a wearable glove provides control over a three-fingered hand at the end of the robot’s arm.

I’ve been writing alot about how the consciousness of our planet is being increasingly connected due to the Internet and how the essence of ourselves is populating virtual spaces. As the days and months go by, we’ll experience better and more efficient means of us collaborating, communicating and interacting virtually as we work on making this global network a multiplier and accelerator of human cognitive evolution.

Sadly, there’s a long way to go before I’ll be able to jack in to some sort of an interstellar network and scream “Danger, Will Robinson!”