Two nights ago, 13-year-old Nick LeGrande threw out the first pitch at the Yankees-Athletics game in Oakland from 1,800 miles away in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. This was the first telerobotic pitch in MLB history.

Nick is just like any young baseball fan. He plays Little League. His bedroom is covered in pennants and posters. And he dreams of making it to the majors. This all changed when he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a life-threatening blood disorder that has taken him away from his friends and from the game he loves. Until two nights ago night.

Google partnered with agency Venables Bell & Partners and tech partner Deeplocal to enable Nick to make the pitch. The pitch was made possible via a telerobotic pitching machine that can be controlled over long distances through Google Fiber’s high-speed connection. Created by Deeplocal, the robot, equipped with a livestreaming camera, showed Nick the stadium in Oakland in real time as he tossed out the first pitch remotely.

Catch it happening again this Saturday, June 15, between 8:45 and 11:00 p.,m., at 15th St. and 9th Ave in New York. Agency: Cramer-Krasselt Chicago.

RoboRoach has launched a Kickstarter campaign to gather funding to commercially roll out technology that'll allow you to control the movement of a live cockroach from your own mobile device. Fugyeah. Donate at least $100 to their campaign and they'll send you a surgery kit consisting of a PCB “backpack,” battery and three sets of electrodes to help you start assembling your cockroach army. Fugyeah.

Via