????在醫(yī)學領域，這項技術一開始只在一個相對較小的范圍推出，其中有四家采用該機器人的醫(yī)院在加利福尼亞州【包括加州大學洛杉磯分校（UCLA）的醫(yī)療中心】，另外還有哥倫布市的俄亥俄州威克那斯醫(yī)療中心（Ohio State Wexner Medical Center）、西弗吉尼亞亨廷頓市的圣瑪麗醫(yī)療中心（St. Mary's Medical Center）、以及墨西哥城的Instituto de Salud del Estado de México醫(yī)院。它將首先用于疑似中風病例的治療，這突出了遠程呈現(xiàn)技術最大的能力之一，就是把正確的人放到正確的病房里，去應對正確的情況，不管這個人身在什么地方。中風很難診斷，而且每浪費一分鐘，中風對人體的損傷都會成倍上升。而能夠診斷和治療中風病人的神經(jīng)科醫(yī)生在美國的分布密度相對而言依然較為稀薄（在其他國家則更低）。RP-VITA的首要目標就是證明它可以在最需要的時間，有效地把專業(yè)的醫(yī)療服務送到最需要他們的地方，在整個醫(yī)療體系內創(chuàng)造更高質量的醫(yī)療護理。

????如果RP-VITA獲得成功，而且它和其它類似的系統(tǒng)都能得到主流醫(yī)療界的認可，那么它的影響將會波及其它行業(yè)。如果這些機器人可以在快節(jié)奏、甚至往往非常雜亂的醫(yī)療環(huán)境里取得成功，那么讓它在大公司、運輸倉庫或是工廠里找到適合它的角色應該也不是難事。安格爾說：“我們已經(jīng)向其它行業(yè)發(fā)出了有力的聲音。如果醫(yī)院和FDA信任我們在他們的醫(yī)院里工作，那么自動導航機器人在大家的辦公大樓里工作的日子應該也不遠了?！?/p>

????安格爾表示，如果RP-VITA獲得了主流醫(yī)療界的認可，將加快遠程機器人進入我們生活其它角落的腳步。如果安格爾的判斷是正確的，那么RP-VITA的誕生可能標志著遠程機器人正在從遙遠的未來走向我們的生活。生活助理機器人將不再是新奇的玩意兒，它們將開始成為我們日常生活里一個司空見慣的組成部分。

????安格爾說：“Apple Newton電腦之所以失敗了，是因為它雖然是一個很好的創(chuàng)意，但是欠缺易用性。而iPad成功了，是因為它做了足夠多對的事。遠程呈現(xiàn)產(chǎn)業(yè)也面臨著相同的挑戰(zhàn)。要制造一個差勁的遠程呈現(xiàn)機器人玩具還是比較簡單的事。但是要想讓一個不懂技術、工作繁忙的專業(yè)人士把它當作一個好用的工具，卻要花10多年的學習和努力。我認為我們會看到RP-VITA成為第一款獲得全世界關注的遠程呈現(xiàn)產(chǎn)品?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng)）

????譯者：樸成奎

????On the medical side, the initial rollout of the technology is relatively small -- four hospitals in California (including UCLA medical center in Los Angeles), Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in Colombus, St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, West Va., and the Instituto de Salud del Estado de México in Mexico City. In all cases it will primarily be used in the treatment of suspected stroke cases, thus highlighting one of remote telepresence's greatest abilities: putting the right person in the right room to deal with the right situation, regardless of where that person might physically be. Strokes are difficult to diagnose and can grow exponentially more damaging with every minute that is lost, yet the national supply of top-tier neurologists capable of diagnosing and treating stroke victims is spread relatively thin across the U.S. (and spread even thinner elsewhere). RP-VITA's primary objective is to prove that it can efficiently distribute that medical expertise to the places it's needed most at the time it's needed, creating better patient care across the entire health care system.

????If it's successful and RP-VITA and systems like it are accepted into the mainstream of patient care, the reverberations will be felt far beyond the health care industry. If these robots can hack it in the fast-paced, sometimes disorganized, and often frenetic hospital environment, then acting as couriers in large office settings or extra sets of eyes or hands in shipping warehouses or factory floors should be simple enough, Angle says. "We can already make a strong statement to other industries," he says. "If hospitals trust us and the FDA trusts us to be in their hospitals, then autonomously navigating robots in your building really ought to work."

????In other words, RP-VITA's acceptance into the vast world of health care will accelerate the acceptance of robots into other corners of our lives, Angle says. If he's right, the advent of RP-VITA could mark the moment when telerobotics come in from the horizon and helper robots shed their novelty and start becoming a conventional part of everyday life.

????"The Apple Newton failed because it was a great idea that wasn't usable enough," Angle says, "whereas the iPad succeeded because it got enough right. The remote presence industry has the same challenge. It's relatively straightforward to build a really bad, minutes-of-fun telepresence robot. It's taken over a decade of learning and attempts to get something that a busy professional who is not a technologist would view as an easy-to-use tool. I think we'll see RP-VITA as the first remote presence product that gains traction in the world."