I propose a service where people are hired to wear very high tech web cams with speaker attached. The hiring party (user) can direct the "webzoid" to move about. This would be done through some sort of data interface that the webzoid can see. The end users can type or say where he wants the webzoid to go next.
This Webzoid could attend meetings or seminars and could be directed to look at different things and different people. It could even go so far as to have a display of the users face so that people could interact with a distant user.
This would allow busy execs to attend distant meetings and conferences without actually having to get on a plane. Webzoids could be stationed in every big city waiting to be hired by a user on the web.
The users could hook up a high tech visor to view what the webzoid is looking at. The user can also talk through the webzoids speakers.
It would be kinda cool to have a webzoid walk around Vegas or NY and you could see what is going on without leaving your desk. You could plan a vacation by visiting things and making arraingments using the webzoid.
You could send the WebZoid to go get in line for tickets to that hot broadway play. You could send the webZoid to go insult your X-Husband. You could send the webzoid to see your kids soccer game or recital. There are endless uses for the webzoid. What else could the webzoid do, any ideas?-- Zorcon, Jun 07 2003 sounds like a job for my slave monkey http://www.halfbake...dea/Slave_20Monkeys [ato_de, Oct 04 2004] Find unkle roy http://www.uncleroyallaroundyou.co.uk/Difficult to discribe at this time of night but worth having a look at.Basicaly a game where people with laptops and web cams look for unkle roy with help from online viewers [sufc, Oct 04 2004] Someone just suggested this exact idea.-- DrCurry, Jun 07 2003 Ya, it was ME!-- Zorcon, Jun 07 2003 //What else could the webzoid do, any ideas?// He or she could come over your house and tell you that you need to get out more.-- krelnik, Jun 07 2003 An interesting way to be a tourist, perhaps, but I can't see any other popular use for it.-- phoenix, Jun 08 2003 I can: voyeurism. Suppose you want to know what goes on somewhere you'd never normally go (Ku Klux Klan rally; orgy; mosh pit; crack house; extreme sports event [participant's p.o.v.]; maximum security prison, etc.).
The webzoid person could also enter theatres or other venues on the sly, so you could watch a movie, play or musical performance.
Surveillance: webzoid person can follow your spouse to a secret rendez-vous.
Croissant. I like the name, too.-- snarfyguy, Jun 08 2003 I just finished _Snow Crash_, a book recommended by several HB regulars, and these things are in there. But they are called Gargoyles.-- bungston, Jun 08 2003 [snarfyguy] No disrespect, but who the fuck would let someone walk around with a camera at *any* of the places you mentioned?
Enter a theater "on the sly"? Do you think people don't do that now? Why would I do it for someone else - as a waldo - when I can make more money bootlegging the video myself?
Don't private investigators already follow around spouses? What element does real-time communication add?-- phoenix, Jun 08 2003 [phoenix]: I figured the camera apparatus would be cleverly concealed (looking through a buttonhole or out of a hat) or miniaturized beyond detection, like those catheter doohickeys. The webcam equivalent of "wearing a wire" from cop shows, if you will.
Maybe the surreptitious theater-going won't add up.
Yeah, it's my understanding that private investigators already follow around spouses. Real-time communication adds a video game / reality t.v.-like frisson of the "thrill of the chase." Perhaps you'd like to see what your spouse is doing without getting off your ass, and without some Sam Spade type know-it-all giving you the blow-by-blow later on. And with the two-way communication apparatus, you can control the action to some degree. I guess you could to that with mobile phones, but this way, you could see the action.-- snarfyguy, Jun 09 2003 random, halfbakery