Virtual Tours of Italy with San Pellegrino

Whether it is a good pizza or plate of pasta, not to mention the wine, we all love something about Italy. While it may not always be possible to just hop on the plane and experience the Italian culture, San Pellegrino Fruit Beverages is giving everyone the chance of a virtual trip to Taormina in Sicily for free.

To arrive on the streets of Taormina all you have to do is log into your Facebook account and Like the San Pellegrino page. You are then placed in a queue for your turn to stroll around Italy’s streets.

All of this is made possible thanks to a quartet of robots, which you can remotely control for three minutes. The location of Sicily was chosen because that is where the 81-year old brand’s fruit ingredients come from.

The amazing thing is you can actually interact with locals and practice your Italian, due to the two-way audio-video connection that has built-in language translation capabilities.

If you don’t fancy chatting to anyone then you can just opt for a more scenic experience using a Skybot device, which is a robot mounted on a 40-foot pole, capable of showing you 360-degree views of the city and the Mediterranean.

The robots are five feet tall and weigh about 350 pounds. They were built by Deeplocal, who spent two months on the project in total.

The robots have an umbrella attached to keep them cool in the summer heat. There is a tablet mounted to the robot with a steady-cam so you can see and be seen by those you chose to interact with. The connection is wireless and it is possible to watch other streams in real time.

The robots do not wander around the streets alone. They are accompanied by a handler and brand ambassador. People can opt out of being filmed and passersby must sign releases to be on camera, so protecting privacy.

The campaign runs until August 17, so be quick to book your place in the queue.

[Image via mashable]

SOURCE: http://mashable.com/2013/08/10/drive-a-robot/