# Beam should have a hardware API

By [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://paragraph.com/@nickgrossman) · 2016-01-13

beam, hardware, tech-design-internet

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We've got a few [Beam](http://suitabletech.com) telepresence robots at USV, and use them all the time.  [Fred](http://avc.com) has written about them [here](http://avc.com/2015/05/beam/).  We had a team meeting today, and we had two beams going at once -- Fred and I were the first to arrive, and we were chatting beam-to-beam -- he in LAUtah, me in Boston, both of us in NYC by robot:

> Talking beam-to-beam w [@fredwilson](https://twitter.com/fredwilson) - him in LA, me in Boston, talking in the USV office in NYC [pic.twitter.com/1ma4RGMsFD](https://t.co/1ma4RGMsFD)
> 
> — Nick Grossman (@nickgrossman) [January 13, 2016](https://twitter.com/nickgrossman/status/687273904906317824)

It works amazingly well.  It has now become somewhat normal for robots to be roving around the office, having conversations w people, USV team folks and visitors alike. One idea that keeps coming up is an extensible peripherals API -- the Beam robots already come w a USB port (used for initial setup), and it should be possible to use that to extend it with hardware.  We joke about jousting (and have done some), but I could seriously imagine bolting on devices such as additional displays / LCDs, sensors of various kinds, devices that can perform human-like gestures (the way the [Kubi](https://www.revolverobotics.com/) can nod, shake and bow), etc. Thinking of Beam as a platform in this way would certainly extend its capabilities (in particular for industry), and would also position Beam in a much stronger position at the center of an ecosystem.  Would love to see that happen.

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*Originally published on [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://paragraph.com/@nickgrossman/beam-should-have-a-hardware-api)*