Yeah, but...
...it's still not as good as the clown bot from F/X 2
The Avatar headlines were inevitable, weren’t they? Japanese researchers have unveiled a master-slave robot that moves in synch with kit worn by the robot’s controllers. Telesar V of Keio University has a more serious purpose than entertainment, though: its developers hope it could be a precursor to robots designed to enter …
... its a WALDO, as anybody who reads classic science fiction knows. The name comes from a story of that name written in 1942 by Robert A. Heinlein. The current term for it is telemanipulator: I prefer waldo because its shorter and more memorable.
The distinction is that a robot is capable of autonomous action while a waldo is not: its sole job is to do precisely what its operator causes it to do while providing real-time visual, audio and haptic feedback.
Thanks for putting me straight. I'd always thought that a Waldo was a powered exoskeleton. A quick read of the Wikipedia synopsis of the story has put me straight. I didn't start reading science fiction magazines until the '60s, which must be how I (incorrectly) learned the term Waldo.
Am currently reading oath of fealty (Niven and Pournelle) who reference Henlein in 1981 and started wondering why we don't have this kind of thing yet and then this article came up. Read enough sci fi and nothing comes as a supprise any more.
Mines the one with the keys to the remote control moon digger in the pocket!