Google's Lunar Xprize is still alive and well, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University think they have the $30 million answer to beaming video from the moon: a telepresence robot. Naturally. Instead of simply broadcasting footage of the moon's surface, however, the scientists want to, as they say, "bring the Moon back" according to the BBC . How? By mating the spacefaring robot with Oculus Rift headsets here on Earth; turn your head on the Third Rock From the Sun and the robot on the moon will supposedly turn in tandem via head-tracking. There are a few caveats that had to be overcome, however. Namely, the Rift needs a pair of simultaneous video feeds to properly achieve a convincing virtual reality experience, and, by design it can't accept two streams.
The team says that it overcame this and a few other hurdles (hopefully lag is one of them) with a nonstop hackathon. The team's goals are lofty, but we can't help but admire them nonetheless. Ultimately CMU wants hundreds of its robots on the moon and a Rift headset in every room -- allowing practically anyone to see what Apollo 11's crew saw 45 years ago.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Science, Alt, Google
Source: BBC
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