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Robotic Photographer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the takes-a-better-photograph-than-I-do dept.

Boojum137 writes " ExtremeTech has an article on a robotic wedding photographer named Lewis. Lewis's hardware stats are modest, so he uses a clever trick to locate people based on skin tone, which is also independent of race. After locating potential subjects with a myriad of sensors, including sonar, laser range finders, and infra-red, he tries to frame the shot according to photographic rules of composition. But the real innovation behind this "red trashcan" is its ability to fade into the background. According to Lewis's creators at Washington University's Media and Machines lab, because of the robot's passive nature, people tend to ignore it after short period of ogling. This allows for some great natural shots, instead of the typical forced and self-conscious shots from human wedding photographers. And, in case you were wondering, Lewis is going to live up to his name in November."

7 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. you can barely see it by AssFace · · Score: 4, Funny

    that thing totally just blends. I could see how people would just not notice a fire engine red barrel wandering through a party.

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
  2. Sees Skin.... by efatapo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does this mean the women with the smallest dresses will be photographed the most?

  3. I think the robot is male by Aceticon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Lewis is able to determine that it's seeing a human by recognizing that it's looking at a pair of legs. Once this realization is made, Lewis gazes up to look at the individual's face.

    That pretty much describes the way most guys recognize chicks (especially in sunny climates)

  4. Yes... by Zephy · · Score: 3, Funny

    it *was* designed by students, after all

  5. kiss the bride by Scrameustache · · Score: 3, Funny

    because of the robot's passive nature, people tend to ignore it after short period of ogling. This allows for some great natural shots, instead of the typical forced and self-conscious shots from human wedding photographers.

    Yeah, but can it kiss the bride?

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  6. Re:This is a good thing by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Funny
    > What it does show is that it is feasible to do more work in this area - despite its size, people lose interest (although I would imagine this is more to do with wedding-associated alcohol than anything else...) and let it click away without ogling at it - all it is is fairly simple technology appliying simple rules (e.g. face should be in centre or photo or wherever) and then takes a few pictures.

    It's a good thing so many of us geeks are so stereotypically asexual.

    I mean, this would be the perfect thing to have at a /.er's wedding. Except that you'd just get roll after roll of close-ups of geeks' noses as they examine the wedcambot for 3 hours while the reception goes on in the background.

    Groom included. ("Huh? Oh yeah, yeah, I do, I do, whatever. Just gimme a few minutes, I think I can get a Quake server running on this thing! Tell the best d00d to bring his laptop, we're gonna have wireless LAN gaming at the reception!")

  7. Re:As a former wedding photographer, by MicroBerto · · Score: 3, Funny

    It always hurts when you're told that you can be replaced with a shell script ;-)

    --
    Berto