LogMeIn offers a suite of remote desktop software that lets you remotely connect to and control a computer to access files, diagnose and repair problems, or perform other actions. While the company stopped offering its free remote desktop software last year, LogMeIn continues to crank out enterprise solutions… and the company’s newest service moves beyond remote control and into the realm of remote vision. Or something like that, anyway.
LogMeIn Rescue Lens is a service that lets companies offer tech support on all sorts of products by using your smartphone camera so that a remote worker can see exactly what you see.
This lets the business diagnose problems remotely, without sending a repair person out to meet you. In some situations, this could also allow the remote worker to walk you through the steps necessary to fix the problem yourself.
The service works with Android and iOS devices, and in addition to letting customers share their field of view with tech support, it supports whiteboarding to let users draw or write on the smartphone screen — so a customer can point at a gadget and the customer service rep can point out where the serial number, screws, or other points of interest are located. Those circles and other marks remain in place even if the camera moves.
If you’ve ever tried to talk someone through a problem with a computer, VCR, or other gadget over the phone you know that a big part of the problem is that sometimes it seems like you aren’t speaking the same language: what you call the disc drive, they might call the cup holder.
LogMeIn Rescue Lens could solve some of those problems when the service launches in April. It’ll be included as an updated for existing LogMeIn Rescue customers.
It’s an interesting idea, but it’s not one that comes cheap: LogeMeIn Rescure is aimed at enterprise customers and service plans start at $1299 per year.
via TechCrunch
I’ve used Skype in a similar fashion, to help someone with a non-computer issue via video conference. However, the best feature of this Rescue Lens is the virtual whiteboard’s tracking of objects in the view to keep the writing aligned.