Zabosu (#zabosu), a pioneer in human-mediated telepresence technologies and marketplaces, today unveiled its revolutionary mobile technology that enables a person (a.k.a. the Director) to “take control” of another person (a.k.a. the Actor) anywhere in the world there is 4G cellular service. A Kickstarter (#kickstarter) campaign is now LIVE to help the company validate the concept and to receive feedback on how the world will use the platform. The funding goal is $100,000 USD, however the raised funds will not go towards the platform’s development. Instead, they will be stored as credits for use on the service and, in an unusual twist for a Kickstarter campaign, will be refundable to contributors (minus applicable Kickstarter and Amazon Payments fees) if Zabosu doesn’t launch by the end of the year.
Zabosu Wants To Turn People Into Remote-Controlled HumansThe Kickstarter campaign can be seen at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/780943604/remote-controlled-humans
The Actor, or remote controlled human, streams live audio and video of their surroundings via their cell phone so the Director sees and hears everything going on around them. The Director also speaks to the Actor via their computer microphone and the Actor’s mobile phone earpiece. The result is a human projection of the Director into the Actor’s surroundings. And, since the Director is paying the Actor, the Actor does what the Director tells them! The Director will indicate to the Actor what the task is when he contacts the Actor, and the cost will be calculated based on task and duration. The Director is charged by Zabosu when the session begins and the Actor receives payment (less Zabosu’s fee) 48 hours later.
Potential uses of Zabosu including hiring an Actor to attend a tradeshow on the Director’s behalf in another city, having an Actor visit and report progress on a building site (i.e. if the Director is building a house across the country and they want to keep tabs on the progress of their new home), visiting a museum, sending an Actor to view a potential vacation spot, and more. The uses are only limited by the imagination of the Director and the availability of local Actors. One Director can even control multiple Actors simultaneously (i.e. a Director is looking for a new office and is considering four candidate spaces – they could hire four Actors and send one to each, even at the same time, and evaluate all four in less time than it would take to visit one of them).
What makes Zabosu’s platform so unique and innovative is that it has developed a website where people can come search for Actors (who are able to register their availability directly on the site) to perform whatever task they need. Actors may be identified on the basis of location, availability, experience and other parameters, and then contacted. The company has also developed an app (Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” and later for now) that Actors will be able to download for free from the Google Play store and that receives offers from Directors, shows the Actor’s location, the location of the task and other pertinent information. The app handles the audio/video communication between both parties. For anyone looking to earn extra income, signing up as an Actor can provide a new revenue stream.
“The inspiration for Zabosu came from Justin.tv, a web show in 2007 that followed Justin Kan as he roamed San Francisco with a backpack full of cellular data modems livestreaming audio and video of his life, pretty much 24/7,” said Karl Lautman, founder and CEO, Zabosu. “At that time, I thought how much more interesting it would be if viewers could talk back to Justin and tell him what to do, but the technology just wasn’t there yet. When I finally saw 4G cellular networks on the horizon, which are capable of the requisite 1 Mbps upload speed, I began development of Zabosu in earnest.”
About Zabosu
Zabosu is a pioneer in human-mediated telepresence technologies and marketplaces. By allowing people to locate, hire, communicate with and control other people (who stream live audio and video of their surroundings via their cellphones and the Zabosu phone app), anywhere in the world there’s a 4G cellular signal, Zabosu enables the controllers (aka “Directors”) to project themselves into whatever environment the people being controlled (aka “Actors”) happen to be in. This ability enables human interactions that have never been possible before. With Zabosu, people can go places and do things they otherwise would not have the time or money for. Visit www.zabosu.com for more information.
