A Robot That Allows You to Interact with People Far Away

A telepresence robot called "Double" at the Hastings Contemporary Museum in the United Kingdom

As non-face-to-face and online businesses have emerged as promising areas in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, "telepresence robots" are garnering interest.

A telepresence robot places you at a remote location instantly, providing you with a virtual presence. The robot allows you to interact with people at a remote place. They can view and hear you through the robot and you can simultaneously view what the robot is looking at and hearing.

Interest in telepresence robots is growing in the post-COVID-19 era, leading to an increase in trademark applications in Korea.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), there had been no trademark applications related to telepresence robots for years since three applications were first filed in 2013. There were two applications in 2017 and three in 2018. Yet the figure exploded to 94 in 2019 and 28 in the first four months of 2020. Korean companies have recently been paying much attention to telepresence robots.

The use of telepresence robots is becoming common overseas. In fact, the Hastings Contemporary Museum in southern England was closed in the aftermaths of the COVID-19 spread, but it has deployed a telepresence robot called "Double" to allow citizens to appreciate artworks at home.

In addition, the A Medical Center, which first treated a COVID-19 patient in the United States, used a telepresence robot called "Vici" to examine a patient's conditions using a tablet PC instead of facing the patient directly.

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