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Robots 'beam' people to work

Bo Preising, Suitable Technologies' vice president of engineering, left, talks with engineers, Josh Faust, center on screen, and Josh Tyler, on screen at right, both using a Beam remote presence system in Palo Alto, Calif. Beam is a roving computer screen that stands five feet and rides on motorized wheels.

PALO ALTO, Calif — Engineer Dallas Goecker attends meetings, jokes with colleagues and roams the office building just like other employees at his company in Silicon Valley.

But Goecker isn't in California. He's more than 2,300 miles away, working at home in Seymour, Ind.

It's all made possible by the Beam — a mobile video-conferencing machine that he can drive around the Palo Alto offices and workshops of Suitable Technologies. The 5-foot-tall device, topped with a large video screen, gives him a physical presence that makes him and his colleagues feel like he's actually there.

“This gives you that casual interaction that you're used to at work,” Goecker said, speaking on a Beam. “I'm sitting in my desk area with everybody else. I'm part of their conversations and their socializing.”

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