Slashdot Mirror
Remote-Controlled Robot Could Browse The Stacks
An anonymous reader writes "A Japanese team of researchers has developed a robot that could help browse for books in a library by receiving instructions via the Internet, a team member said Friday. The robot, a wheeled vehicle measuring 50 by 45 centimeters with a digital camera, mechanical hand and arm, follows orders received through the Internet." This reminds me somewhat of Sonoma State University's (quite different) system profiled a few years ago in Wired.
Great idea, but grad students are still cheaper. :)
RD
Scan the books into computers (or itself), and then we have no more need for the actual book.
...and that's how it begins
And I thought I was cool when I found my book using the Dewey Decimal System :-)
a thousand robots at a thousand typewriters in a thousand years could reproduce the works of Shakespeare, but now its just a lot quicker to pull it up.
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
You can pay them much less and they could be more attractive!
I can't read Japanese, so what good is it?
Sig: BEEeeeP,,Please press pound, so I can get on with my fucking life!
There wouldn't be any librarian action figures with hot shushing action!
s hushing_action.php
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2003/10/09/hot_
meep
Do I get a little readout that says:
Result 1 of about 3. Search took 25 minutes
yes, it saves you a little bit of trouble, but you'd still have to *read* the book. I want a robot that will learn for me.
If I know the title and author of the book I'm looking for, I can find it just as easily, and odds are I can outrun this little robot. Now, if I ask the robot a question (IE, What causes Parkinson's Disease?) and it brings me back the most relevant book on that question, that'd be awesome.
Why do the simple things get the same billing as the complicated things?
.NET; it sort of misses the point.
Why is it significant that the orders are "received through the Internet?" Shouldn't the navigational and computer vison aspects be overarching?
It reminds me of Visual Studio
* my mom was a librarian** for a while, chill out
** then she got a real job
That's interesting. I love browsing for books... walking along the racks just looking at the titles and picking out those which sound interesting. Only problem, you're walking with your head tilted, which gets sore after a few minutes.
It'd be cool to have the robot walk along and you'd see the image rotated 90 degrees, and the tiles scrolling by. Heck it'd be nice to get that on a video at the end of the aisle so you wouldn't have to go into the crowded aisle itself.
Libraries are where RFID tags will really shine. The robot wouldn't need a camera, just run run along the shelf with a sensor until it picks up the right tag. As for placing a book in the wrong place, smart bookshelves that read the RFID and record all the books that are there, and report any that are out of place.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Anybody remember the slugbot from a while back?
In a recent PopSci little tidbit article I read, they had an automatic book scanner that used a series of 2 mirrors and a scanner to scan books page by page and special software to convert it from an image to a text document.
What would be nifty would be to combine the two and convert old/out of print books into data, where they would last forever, free from the stresses of our world.
Paper doesn't last forever you know.
- Sherman
Well, I know the Japanese are strong in robotics and Tsukuba is a very well known university, but this story sure doesn't seem to have gotten any mention in the local (to me) press. I read Japanese well enough, but nothing in the Japanese Google, and nothing showing up in the Yomiuri or Asahi newspapers. Nothing obvious in the university's Web site, either. Makes me wonder if they're just fishing for some foreign venture capital?
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Why is it important to stress that the robot receives orders through the Internet? Is that somehow more important than the fact that it navigates bookshelves to find books? That's like stressing that a television receives pictures through Radio Raves. Hey, look! This magic picture box gets its images from **ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION** Ooh! Ahh!
Why are people still capitalizing "Internet", for that matter? Good Lord. Da interweb ain't nothin' but a thang anymore, folks. It's like radio waves. Useful for transferring information and the band is full of static. Get over it.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
Does it tiptoe about going
when it's not looking for a book?What about a pair of hornrimmed batgirl glasses with nice shiny chain, does it have that?
Can it read me a story, and make me think I'm there?
If not, it's not a proper librarian in my book.
Hmm, OTOH I'm thinking this whole robot thing may be going somewhere, after all.
sigs, as if you care.
whats the frequency kenneth!!
whats the frequency kenneth!!!!!!!
Why is it important to stress that the robot receives orders through the Internet?
If you read the article (which is only two paragraphs long, is it too much to ask people to read a two paragraph article?), you find it was designed to be used by people who cannot physically access the library. The robot finds the books, opens the books, flips through pages and sends the images back over the internet to the person who for some reason is housebound. That person can then request the book be sent to them. So yeah, the internet plays an important role here.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Bah! In my day, we actually read the books...and we LIKED it!
people like cowboi neal who are too fat to get out of bed could shop for books then??
More details here: original pdf, converted html.
Somebody took first place at the National Grammer Rodeo in Canada. ::Looks around as nobody understands the reference::
Books are meant to be burned. Long live the digital revolution!
Hmm, I definately should have tried harder to resist that one.
It's not (yet) a robot to help sort books, It's so that people can find a book, or page therein, in the library from the comfort of your home PC.
Personally I wouldn't bother, since I can already reserve a book from my local library over the internet, and then the librarian has to go find it for me, much simpler for me than a robot I'd have to control myself.
As other people have pointed out, somthing like a mail room for sorting books, possibly based on short range RFID tags would be more useful in your average library, though certainly not as cool.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
...wish you would stop with the robot stories! They're never gonna forget this damn cliche! AAARGH!
"Verbing weirds language." -- Calvin
Let me ask you something. Why go through all the trouble to design, build, and debug a digital camera wielding box of bolts with a D-Link wireless Internet gateway jammed up its rear just so homebound people can visit the library, when existing technology known as "scanners" and "permanent storage" could store and make available every book in that library on the Internet? Not only that, there would be no queue to use the freaking robot, and the robot wouldn't be running over human library browsers' toes. Oh, "scanners" and "permanent storage" aren't experimental technologies either. Hmm!!!
Go ahead and mod me down for pointing out UTTER STUPIDITY. I just call it like I see it.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
I don't know why I know this, but I read an article sometime ago about a similar thing.. I found a linke o/robo t.html
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/audio-vid
Enjoy!
I love robots (i work in robotics), but this is a waste. Clearly, digitizing the text is a faster and easier solution. A clever hack at CMU for such a project was used to solve the problem of turning pages. Pull too hard, and the page rips. Push and more than one page goes for the ride. Solution: silly (or thinking) putty! It sticks to the page perfectly, i.e. it lets go when it should. This is an example of coming up with a solution to a given problem. A mobile robot that needs to perceive its environment, make local decisions, take up space, incur battery power, etc. is just making more problems and solving nothing. It is creating problems, though you get some wow-effects along the way.
Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
Let me ask you something. Why go through all the trouble to design, build, and debug a digital camera wielding box of bolts with a D-Link wireless Internet gateway jammed up its rear just so homebound people can visit the library, when existing technology known as "scanners" and "permanent storage" could store and make available every book in that library on the Internet? Not only that, there would be no queue to use the freaking robot, and the robot wouldn't be running over human library browsers' toes. Oh, "scanners" and "permanent storage" aren't experimental technologies either. Hmm!!!
Why doesn't Amazon.com have scanned pages of all the books they sell? Maybe because it'll take a dozen years and millions of dollars to scan in all those pages? Maybe because the authors don't want scanned images of their books online in the first place? Maybe because having a full book in digital form doesn't fall under fair use rules?
Yeah, it'd be fantastic to have every book online, available at any time, not low definition images of pages. But I suspect it'll be cheaper to buy a robot that can fill queued requests during the night, rather than scan in every single book that's available. Once there's a central repository of books where every library could reference requests, then you won't need the robot, but until copyright laws change and all the books are online, the robot is probably the cheaper solution.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
There have been a lot of alarming robot related stories on slashdot lately! Thankfully, I just renewed my Old Glory insurance policy with a robot plan. you should to! When the robots grab you with thier metal claws you cant break free, because they're made of metal and robots are strong.
*WARNING: Persons denying the existance of robots may be robots themselves.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
"Yo
We'll fight for freedom where ever there's trouble.
It's
He never gives up. He'll stay 'til the fight's won.
The real reason for building this robot was to catch students making out in the basment. (most libraries' stacks are in the basement where the lights are low and access is limited to staff and few lucky/adventurous types) :)
When I was in HS I worked at a library and stacks was my favorite area. One time I heard noise in the far corner and went to investigate. I was clumsy stepped on something on the way there - really cute catholic schoolgirl and my metalhead friend (who also worked there) emerged. Needless to say, both looked embarrassed. They made up some lame excuse and left. Now if I had that robot, I probably would have had the whole thing on tape
1. All the good stuff is in the basement.
2. Catholic schoolgirls are WAY pervy.
3. Women are turned ON more if there's a chance of getting caught.
4. Having long hair and playing metal in your car could actually get you laid! (in the 80s)
"Still in the experimental stage, it was developed as a way to help people who cannot go to a library, said Akihisa Oya, an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba."
"Still in the experimental stage, it was developed as a way to help people who cannot go to a library, said Akihisa Oya, an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba."
Wouldn't it be easier just to design a machine that could scan all of the books. Why waste time with a robot, now that computer memory can hold millions of books?
"Today, the Authors Guild is saying that the publishers don't have the right to let Amazon do this." -- Slashdot, Oct 25, 2003 - Amazon's Book Search Hits a Snag
Why speculate when we know the answer?
But then again, I could be wrong.
The fact that standard organisational systems (Dewey or Library of Congress)are employed in all university libraries makes the job so much easier.
If you want to find research materials on North American Indians of the Plains. Instead of looking in a card catalogue, you would get yourself up to the "E" Stacks and roam around the 78's to 99's. Easy.
Sometimes, I think that Librarians have more to tell us about organising information than we have to tell them.
The concept is fine though, just the wrong application area (slightly). Instead of books these bots could move tapes about in mass data stores. .....
Its very generic. Solving the general case of accurately moving book sized objects of about 1Kg weight around in a large warehouse opens up lots of immediate uses for such a device, automated parts warehouses, microfilm libraries
In fact they picked a stupid PR angle to twist this with, getting library books _is_ a pretty dumb example of this devices capabilities. Besides which its all pretty standard robo tech and I can't really see the story. Maybe they overcame some fuel-cell/power barrier or built a clever mechanical arm.??
I, for one, welcome our new robotic librarian overlords!
Program it to read all of the books and upload them to an online server.
Then it can retire and take up a hobby, like infinite looping or virus collecting.
Why speculate when we know the answer?
Because IANAL, and I don't know the answer, regardless what the Authors Guild says, what Amazon says. Therefore I can only speculate...
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
God, why do the Japanese have to turn everything into a robot :/ First pets, then car salesmen, now this. If Battlestar Galactica or the Matrix ever comes true... you know who to blame.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Around the sixties, the Library of the Delft University of Technology had a "bibliofoon" system, where people could find the books they want in a catalog and then enter their number in the ordering system. A red light would start burning at the right shell, and personnel would start taking the order.
:-) Must have been marvellous.
Once arrived at the right spot, they would get the ordered book and put it on a large spiral slide that was central to the building. This slide was connected to a sliding table ("lopende band", how does that translate?) which ended up in the catalog room, so that people could take their books and check them out.
The most fun part about this system was that people would keep the slide clean by simply taking a slide
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
My thoughts,
1. I never could argue with that cute pencil-chewing librarian who would occasionally look over the horn-rimmed glasses. (Wish I still had her number *cry*)
2. I could never argue with a robot that zoommed around picking up stuff.
Now, in reality, The idea of a robot zooming around picking up stuff, ultimately controlled by a librarian just rocks.
For any system to work this way, it would have to be in collaboration with librarians. The Sonoma Library is a pretty cool concept. Having books lost for 2 decades is not. Personally I have found that running around a library for 2 hours trying to find a book that should be in place X (according to Dewey) is really lame. Some students have more important things to do, like post on Slashdot while putting off writing that 15 page paper on why the FCC should keep Amateur Radio around...
Sheesh, which is worse: lazy work-study students that don't reshelve properly, or a university administration that holds lavish parties for professors with huge salaries, but doesn't hire more than one 1/4-time shelf-reader at a time?
I predict in 20 or so years, Europe and the U.S. will have plenty of catching up to do when it comes to robotics. It seems the japanese are coming up with a new robot concept every week!
Will code a sig generator for food
I always have wondered what it would be like if the ARS system at Sonoma State got slashdotted.
I can just imagine thousands of books pouring into the front circulation desk via the nifty little book mover thingy that zips them around, and them having no idea where to put them all until the people come to pick them up.
</evil_laugh>
How long before someone directs the webcam-bearing robot into the women's bathroom?
> Why are people still capitalizing "Internet", for that matter?
OK that's easy. Because the use of the word "Internet" in this context is a proper noun. You capitalise "Pacific ocean", you capitalise "Joe Shmo, the baker", so you capitalise Internet.
It's important to use the capital "i" to avoid confusion since it can also be used as a common noun to mean "any set of networks interconnected with routers." The Internet is the largest internet in the world (i.e. it's unique), and is therefore capitalised.
Hope that helps.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
"Remote-Controlled Robot Could Burn The Stacks"
Got some pesky book like "You are being lied to" or "Media monopoly" by Ben Bagdikian, or hell, why stop there? Something written by John Taylor Gatto or recordings of Jello Biafra on burned CD donated to the library.
History is written by the victor. A library is used to combat this, and the internet is the ultamate library.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
Robotwars get a whole new dimension here! :)
- Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Tug of war with books in a library. Woot.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Burn the books, burn the books...
Sincerly,
GW Bush Jr.
Wish I could get a robot to organise my LP collection. Its getting out of hand...
"oook?"
First remote controls for the TV. Now remote controls for going to the library?? what's next, remote controlled bathrooms?
Sheesh. Get off your fucking ass and go to the fucking library you fucking GEEK! Looks like your flabby ass could use the exercise.
It's Japanese technology first used in auto manufacturing. All the robots have barcode scanners. definitely no squishy humans allowed where they go...
e r. shtml
http://www.mbsbooks.com/Company/Photos/controll
Didn't I just see some of those in the last episode of Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex?
I suppose they're all fun and great until they start stacking and sorting schoolchildren.
Check here.
Although it's used for fetching data tapes instead of books, the principle is very similar. I've seen it in action, it's very fast and accurate. The system is very helpful for scientists. Let's say a scientist wants to see results of an experiment on a given date; he just plugs this info into the program, robot gets the proper tape, loads it into the reader, and the scientist can view the results. The whole process only takes seconds. Compare it to older scenario where the scientist had to check out the tapes manually from the depository. If the tape was misfiled it would be almost impossible to find it. Robot, on the other hand, always puts it back on the right place.
The purpose of life is to find the purpose of life.
The greatest advantage to this, to my mind, is that you could have the robot find the physical book on the shelf and place it on reserve for you even when the library's closed.
Sure you can have a check-out/reserve system on the web minus the robot, but there's not necessarily any guarantee that the book is where the records say it is.
Now if a similar robot could pull weeds out from between good plants, and target and kill insects, we would all be eating organic food cheaply.
Just a thought,
-Geoff
Check out TrailRegistry.com, my hiking site, Maps, altitude pr
THEREFORE A FAG!