The barber, who was based in Clapton, London, was 250 miles away from Ellis who was located 729 metres above sea level on Snowden in Wales.
Ellis, who was connected via 4G, used his phone to videocall the barber, who was on a 5G connection, so he could see what he was doing and remotely operate the robot arm without causing any cuts.
EE’s Robot Barber arm, developed by The Mill, features a fully mechanical custom-designed hand that grasps the razor blade and carefully mirrors the gestures of the barber who, through the use of five tracking markers and state of the art motion-capture technology, is being tracked precisely as he moves.
The network demonstration relies on low-latency and high-speed data transfer via the 5G network to ensure a smooth shave.
Enabling motion data from the sensors attached to the barber’s custom-made gloves and his specially...