Robots and high speed Internet connect classrooms and sick children

Each year up to 600,000 students are too ill to attend school.  A new innovation in video conferencing technology called PEBBLES could help keep these children from falling behind.
 
PEBBLES is a robot designed to keep students who are too sick to attend school connected to their classrooms.  The technology was highlighted recently during a Capitol Hill luncheon as a part of the Alliance for Public Technology's "Broadband Changed My Life!" series.  The catch? The technology requires high speed Internet access to work properly, according to the creators.
 
When they first began using the robots in 2001 they were forced to use ISDN lines at 128 Kbps, which significantly limited the number of possible locations for deployment. Now, with the growing availability of broadband, they can use PEBBLES in more homes, hospitals, and schools. As Broderick says, "there's no way we could run it on dial-up."
 
PEBBLES stands for Providing Education by Bringing Learning Environments to Students, and requires a pair of robots -- one to attend class, and one for the child to use to communicate. The robots, which are in testing phases right now, transmit video of the child to the classroom and of the classroom to the child, not unlike traditional videoconferencing. Where the difference arises is in the interactivity of the system. The child can use a video game controller to direct the "face" of the robot almost anywhere in the room, and zoom in on any object he or she chooses. The robots are also equipped with scanners, printers and touch screens. Additionally, the robot can raise its hand to indicate the child would like to participate in the classroom discussion.
 
According to the creators, PEBBLES has also been found to help autistic children progress in a classroom environment, since they can control the amount of social interaction.
 
See Dan Broderick, Chief Technology Officer of The PEBBLES Project explains more about the robots below.

 
It's important to remember as we marvel at improvements in technology that an increasing numbers of technological breakthroughs require high speed Internet to function. Without universal high speed Internet access for Americans, we'll be missing out on more than we can imagine.

Broadband Changed My Life Series: Bringing Educational Opportunities to Rural & Urban America (Alliance for Public Technology)

Bringing Educational Opportunities to Rural and Urban America videos (NextGenWeb)