In a school hallway, a U.S. teacher takes her students to the library, leading a single-file line of giggling boys and girls that's perfectly ordinary until you get to a sleek white robot with a video screen showing the face of a smiling, chubby-cheeked boy.
Devon Carrow's life-threatening allergies don't allow him to go to school. But the robot with a wireless  video hookup gives him the school experience remotely, allowing him to participate in class, stroll through the hallways, hang out at recess and even take to the auditorium stage when there's a show.
What's most remarkable is how unremarkable this technology is viewed by his classmates. In a class of 7-year-olds raised on video games, avatars and remote -controlled toys, they don't see a robot. They just see Devon.
Just before class one recent day, a girl leaned toward the robot to tell Devon the joke making the rounds at school: Why did the boy eat his homework? The teacher told him it was a piece of cake.
While making get-well cards for him during a hospital stay last year, his classmates all drew him as a boy, not a bot.
"In the classroom, the kids are like, `Devon, come over, we're doing Legos. Show us your Legos,'" says teacher Dawn Voelker.
"I wondered how the little kids would take to him, thinking they'd be amazed," adds Principal Kathleen Brachmann. "But I think kids are so tech-savvy now that they accept it more than we do."
Even Devon doesn't quite get what all the fuss is about. Steering the four-wheeled robot through school and spinning around to see the classmates is just another mouse-and-keyboard challenge.
"It's so cool because it's like playing a game on the computer ," says the boy. "It's like your objective is to just survive."
For a year now, Devon has attended school using "VGo," a robot shaped a little like a chess pawn.
Since it was introduced in 2011 by VGo Communications, a handful of students across the country have used it.
It's also attracting attention in the medical and business worlds, allowing doctors to consult with patients and workers to virtually pop into the office, even while traveling.
For Devon, it was a chance to go to school for the first time in his life. He has eosinophilic esophagitis, caused by an allergic white blood cell that grows in his stomach and esophagus. He's also got anaphylactic shock syndrome, which causes life-threatening allergic reactions to triggers including milk and peanuts. (continued...)
© 2013 Associated Press under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.
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