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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."

3 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Skin Tone independent of race? by sealawyer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought skin tone was highly correlated with race.

    Are they really trying to say that the machine does just as good a job of identifying all skin colors? I'm willing to believe that, but the statement that skin tone is independent of race seems a little goofy.

  2. Re:Easy way to get good wedding photos by Roblimo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yep. Good, low-cost, low-tech way to get lots of candid reception shots, works out very well.

    Best pattern I've seen = pro to do the ceremony and a *brief* set of posed shots afterwards, disposable cameras for the rest.

    The "robot photog" is not going to be a cheap piece of machinery for a long time, and a dozen disposable cameras in friends'/relatives' hands will get more and more interesting photos than a single robot could possibly produce.

    Of course, at robot weddings with robot guests, things may be different...

    (Don't forget, because of my limo experience I've been to more wedding than most people, literally hundreds of them.)

    - Robin

  3. Other uses... by Razzy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was a cs student at Wash U until May and I saw Lewis running around the halls quite a bit. The robot itself is just a general purpose machine for many robotics applications, the software could be moved to a more purpose-specific robot in an actual commerical wedding photographer. So it doesn't have to be a big red trashcan.

    But the real breakthrough is the ability to identify a target among a group of people. Let's just say that this project was DOD funded.