????在原型產品和最終產品之間，有兩項技術起到了連接作用。首先，iRobot公司與InTouch Health公司合作開發了一個用戶界面，它使用的媒介是幾乎每個醫生都熟悉的iPad。在硬件方面，iRobot的工程師給RP-VITA配上了一套自動導航系統，這個系統依靠預先設定好的內置醫院地圖，可以制定從一個地方到另一個地方的路線。另外RP-VITA身上還安裝了導航傳感器，以確保機器人在走路的過程中不會撞到任何人或任何東西。這樣一來，一個身在芝加哥的醫生如果想知道某個病人的病情，只需拿出平板電腦，然后命令一個RP-VITA機器人移動到病人的病房里就行了。在機器人走路的這段時間里，他還可以看看芝加哥的另一個病人，也可以提前看看會診用的圖表和病歷，或者喝杯咖啡、去趟洗手間。最重要的是，現在我們不需要有一個醫生或護士專門坐在那里，操縱機器人了。

????InTouch Health的CEO王友侖稱，這種進步就像從MP3到iPod的進步。從醫療方面看，RP-VITA是第一個自我導航的機器人，也是第一個可以通過一個iPad應用輸入簡單指令就可以操縱的機器人。而且它還獲得了美國食品和藥物管理局（FDA）的二級認證，意味著醫生可以使用RP-VITA對病人進行監護。也就是說，醫生可以通過這個機器人對病人進行會診，然后實時開處方、制定治療方案，跟醫生就在病房里沒有什么兩樣。這項認證意味著RP-VITA和某些其它的遠程醫療設備有了明顯的區別：利用多種醫療設備配件（比如超聲波成像）加強RP-VITA的功能后，醫生可以真正地對病人進行遠程診斷、開具處方等，而不只是與病人進行簡單的聽說交流。

????換句話說，RP-VITA可以成為一個技術非常復雜的醫療平臺，所以FDA才把它正式認證為一款醫療設備（而不是一個安了輪子的iPad）。不過從用戶的角度看，這些復雜的技術都隱藏在一個直觀的觸屏用戶界面下，再加上它的自我導航技術，使得大多數遠程呈現機器人的低效性得以被充分避免。用安格爾的話說，它是一個真正的產品。

????王友侖說：“這就是我為什么把它比作從MP3播放器到iPod的飛躍。以前用MP3播放器的人比現在用iPod的人少得多，因為把音樂組織起來再上傳到播放器上太麻煩了。這時，iPod帶著iTunes商店面世了，使聽音樂變簡單起來。但是要從MP3轉變到iPod卻很復雜。現在的情況也是一樣。”

????王友侖表示，現在市面上用于醫療護理的機器人很多，這些機器人要么靠護士推著車子拉著它走，要么靠操縱桿操縱，或者說存在其它使用上的困難，同時這些機器人的市場普及率也很低。目前使用了遠程呈現機器人的醫院都算是這項技術的早期采用者。而市場的其它部分——不僅包括醫療領域，也包括其它任何遙控機器人可能產生影響的領域，也都在等待王友侖所說的“iPod運動”。

????王友侖說：“要想讓這個概念被主流接受，要想讓它擴展到整個市場，讓醫療界可以體驗到遠程醫療和遠程呈現技術的好處，我們必須讓它用起來越來越簡單，簡單到只要拿出iPad Mini，就可以點擊選擇你想要的VITA機器人，讓它去你想去的地方。”

????Two key technology pieces bridged the gap from prototype to product. First, iRobot partnered with InTouch Health to generate a user interface that virtually every doctor is already fluent in: the touch-controlled language of the iPad. Then, on the hardware side, iRobot engineers went to work imbuing RP-VITA with an autonomous navigation system that relies on preprogrammed interior maps of hospitals to plot routes from one place to the next as well as onboard navigational sensors to ensure the robot doesn't collide with anything or anyone along the way. Now a doctor making rounds in Chicago who wants to check up on a patient in Topeka can pull out his tablet, instruct an RP-VITA to move to that patient's room, and then use the time while the robot is traveling to visit another patient in Chicago or to pull up charts or records he needs for an upcoming consultation. He can get a cup of coffee or use the restroom. The point is, a skilled internist or nurse isn't sitting around driving a robot.

????InTouch Health CEO Yulun Wang describes this as the MP3 to iPod step for telemedicine. On the medical side, RP-VITA is the first self-navigating robot, and the first that can be directed with simple commands via an iPad app. Class II certification from the FDA means that doctors can use RP-VITA for active patient monitoring -- that is, the doctor can consult with the patient and prescribe care to that patient in real time, no different from if the doctor were right there in the room. This certification is an important distinction between RP-VITA and some other telemedicine setups; It allows for various medical device attachments (like ultrasound imagers, for instance, to augment the RP-VITA so a physician can actually diagnose and prescribe care rather than just talk and listen.

????In other words, RP-VITA can be a very technologically complex platform, so much so that the FDA formally recognizes it as a medical device (and not just an iPad on wheels). But on the user end, that complexity is masked behind an intuitive, app-driven touchscreen user interface and the self-navigating technology that removes that huge layer of inefficiency that shrouds most remote presence robots. Or, as Angle would say, it's a real product.

????"That's why I make the analogy of the MP3 player to iPod," Wang says. "A lot fewer people had the MP3 player because it was just a hassle to get your music organized, get it onto your MP3 player, and then to use it. Then when the iPod came out, along with the iTunes store, it just became easy. But it took a lot of complexity to transition from the MP3 player to the iPod. That's what's happening here."

????There are quite a few robots out there being used for patient care, Wang says, all of them involving a nurse pushing a cart, a joystick control, or some added layer of difficulty. As such, the penetration of the market has been fairly minimal. The hospitals currently using telepresence robots are the early adopters. The rest of the marketplace -- and that doesn't just include the health care space, but anywhere telerobotics might make an impact -- is still waiting for the iPod moment.

????"To get this concept adopted by the mainstream, to get it to proliferate throughout the market where health care in general can experience the benefits of telemedicine and remote presence, we had to make it simpler and simpler to use," Wang says. "So simple that you can just pull out your iPad Mini, tap on the VITA you want and where you want it to go, and it just goes there."