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RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs
Roland Piquepaille writes "A professor in computer science at the Utah State University (USU) is building robots to help people with disabilities, according to the Utah Statesman in this article. The story, which is more focused on the professor than robotics, carries several anecdotes, such as an embarrassing voice recognition system. After a blind man cleared his throat, the robot misinterpreted the sound as a sign that the man wanted to go to the bathroom. Later, every time a man cleared his throat before speaking, the robot changed directions and insisted to guide him to the restrooms. Even if the article is entertaining, this project at USU is far more ambitious. In fact, they want to design RFID-enabled robots mounted on mobile carts which will welcome blind persons at the entrance of a supermarket and guide them through the store. I bet you'll never find those carts at a Wal-Mart store, but read more for other details, references and pictures about these RFID-equipped robots designed to help blind people."
Part of the benefit of having a guide dog is that it can be a true companion to a blind person, and many times more trustworhty than a robot. A dog isn't going to crash and require a reboot, and kibble is easier to figure out than rechargeable batteries.
That said, computers and robotics are a reflection of their creators. I guess I trust dogs a whole lot more. A dog can also provide protection against burglars. The benefits of dogs over robots goes on and on.
A professor in computer science at the Utah State University (USU) is building robots to help people with disabilities, according to the Utah Statesman in this article . The story, which is more focused on the professor than robotics, carries several anecdotes, such as an embarrassing voice recognition system. After a blind man cleared his throat, the robot misinterpreted the sound as a sign that the man wanted to go to the bathroom. Later, every time a man cleared his throat before speaking, the robot changed directions and insisted to guide him to the restrooms. Even if the article is entertaining, this project at USU is far more ambitious. In fact, they want to design RFID-enabled robots mounted on mobile carts which will welcome blind persons at the entrance of a supermarket and guide them through the store. I bet you'll never find those carts at a Wal-Mart store, but read more...
First, let's look in detail at the failure of the voice recognition system.
Of course, this is only a very small part of the project, which will deploy radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for use in robot-assisted indoor navigation for the visually impaired.
But they already built prototypes. And below are two pictures showing this RFID-equipped robotic guide (RG) for visually impaired people (Credit: Vladimir Kulyukin)
For more information, here is a link to Vladimir Kulyukin home page -- which is not always available. From there, you'll have access to various pages covering his research interests and his publications.
You might also want to read a paper named "RFID in Robot-Assisted Indoor Navigation for the Visually Impaired," available as a PDF document (6 pages, 124 KB). Here is the abstract.
The benefits of dogs over robots goes on and on.
I would have to disagree, a guide dog does not know where the library is, or the computer store, or your house, whereas a robotic dog will(does?) have a map and be able to direct you to the location. This robot sounds like a great idea, a good use of technology.
This sig is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
And... you didn't check the license before you started "tinkering" with it? Sounds to me that you're either really stupid, or this is just made up. Besides, the point of the GPL isn't so you can take it and modify it and profit from it and keep it secret selfishly. That's what it's trying to avoid.
China? What about the fucking USA, seriously, why do you think that it is only china that is the 'evil' empire. Remember the prison tortures and abuse in Iraq by the american soldiers? does that sound familiar to china?
Maybe they can follow RFID marked foreign visitors to the USA !
if the man sneezes, then snorts, coughs, and finally clears his throat.
Guide dog. Not attack hound. ...Besides, what would happen when said soldier, hiding somewhere near the robot, cleared his throat?
Mod parent offtopic omg
all i can see is a cut and pasted original article, do the editors even read the submissions ?
i guess copyright infringment is only bad when its software right ?
.. where do I start.
Robots for big corporations that is.
Anything for the corporate money!!!!
I always read the last part of this guys submissions first. It scared me.
"designed to help blind people"
-
Don't worry, that moron's post is totally made up...
USA? What about fucking Germany, seriously, why do you think it is on USA that is the 'evil' empire. Remember the concentration camps and medical experiments on Jewish children by the nazi doctors? does that sound familiar to USA?
/.
Fucking eurohippies are ruining
Well, making it worse, anyway. Ruin is redundant.
"Our store brand of coffee is cheaper, sir"
"Last time you had cheese on your list"
I can even come up with things lawmakers would think of, like forbidding Robby the Robot to suggest cigarettes or liquor.
The robots took out insurance policies on the blind men, and they're using every excuse they can to lead them to the bathroom where they can "accidentally fall" and be left unconcious in a running sink.
It's like the I-Robot movie, only worse! Well... it's like the moive, at least.
My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
There is a huge difference between knowing the path, and walking the path.
Could anyone explain it to me why on Earth would such a robot - an otherwise great idea - be anny better with RFID than without it?
1. FreeBSD is licensed under the BSD license, which basically allows one total control of the source code. You do not need to share the code modifications with anyone.
2. FreeBSD does in fact support Token Ring. And the file system is the UFS, which does not need to be defragmented.
3. The GPL stands for the General Public License. You are correct that any code changes need to be released when the binaries are distributed. BUT!, if you are using it only within your corporation, the changes do not need to be shared as it is being used by one entity (the business).
4. The GPL only applies to code that is written and released under this license. You are free to use the compiler GCC on any source code without this action modifying said code's license.
5. Windows 2000 supports POSIX code so porting code is not very difficult, unless your code uses very specific dependencies. 6. (This is a personal bias) Microsoft's Shared Source stifles growth by not allowing one to correct any deficiencies found within a code base.
In short, Mr. Troll, thank you for playing and giving me the opportunity to share information. Your statements were completely inaccurate and misleading and your scenario was also entirely fake, but we appreciate that we had a chance to catch your attention.
A dog may become infested with bugs, but not with security bugs.
...this.
So yes, we'll be seeing Terminator deja vu in a few years.
Quit hijacking other people's discussions, for godsakes. A lot's wrong in China, but they're not the root of every fucking evil in the world.
If you've had a bad experience with the Chinese government, why don't you just post your story and be done with it? And otherwise, what's driven you to harm your own cause, by making it look like idiots are the ones who espouse it?
The blind face two distinct but related problems: finding the destination, and getting there safely. A dog or cane is an excellent tool to get to the destination safely (in part because sighted people recognize them and give extra space), but they do nothing for the other problem.
I've helped several blind people find the location of something they were 10 feet from. They were pretty sure they were close, but didn't know where to go next. Their dog would keep them on the sidewalk, but had no idea that they wanted to enter the building not go past it.
I studied this issue (about 10 years ago), and at that time all technology to solve the second problem was much worse than a dog or a cane. However there was promise in technology to solve the first problem. In fact I said at the time (and other experts agreed) that there was unlikely to ever be technology that would replace a dog/cane. However technology was very likely to supplement those tools to help the blind get to their destination.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these, just think of the throatclearing, bathroom breaking power that could be achieved!
I apologize for this post
yhbt. yhl. hand.
Imagine Beijing using its cheap labor force to create an army of mechanical robots with the mental capability of a guide dog. A mutt is not that smart , but a dog does not need much intelligence to hunt down a soldier and to kill him. Doberman Pinscher, any one?
I for one, welcome our new RFID-Equipped Robot overlords.... sry all but someone had to say it
All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
This seems to be a case where location based web services would be useful. A blind person with a GPS equipped cell phone and a guide dog could speak the destination into the cell phone and get spoken directions back and then the dog would just make sure the person stays on the sidewalk, doesn't walk into a closed door, etc.. Theoretically the cellphone system could tell the blind person to stop when they got to the edge of a sidewalk, for example, but you wouldn't want to be totally dependent on the phone(viruses, call dropping).
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
"The experiments illustrate that passive RFID tags deployed in the environment can act as reliable stimuli that trigger local navigation behaviors to achieve global navigation objectives." That is, you'll have to imbed an RFID tag into everything you want the robot to be able to see. This is a way around the very hard problem of a generalized object recognition system for the robot. It's a fine solution, if you're blind and you don't mind not leaving your home. Otherwise it sucks.
On the other hand, a robot is never going to drag its owner across three lanes of traffic just to sniff another robot's ass.
Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet
Dogs are also warm and cuddly.
With the exception of the robots in porn, there arn't many robots that can make that claim.
Learn something new.
Part of the benefit of having a guide dog is that it can be a true companion to a blind person, and many times more trustworhty than a robot....I guess I trust dogs a whole lot more. A dog can also provide protection against burglars. The benefits of dogs over robots goes on and on. Very true.
the robot misinterpreted the sound as a sign that the man wanted to go to the bathroom. Later, every time a man cleared his throat before speaking, the robot changed directions and insisted to guide him to the restrooms.
And when he unzipped his pants, well, you know the rest...
or was that an act of Taco?
I just heard a tsunami song on the radio.
I think that a great deal of emotion has been spent on nothing. Come on, was that song really that offensive? And what's wrong with calling chinks chinks? I mean, we call dogs "dogs", cats "cats" then why not chinks "chinks"? WTF?
i have to eat now (non chinese food). i will write later.
What on Earth makes you think you wouldn't see this at Wal-Mart? If they can mass-produce something for pennies (or nearly that, compared to others) that will help them gain even more market share by being the most visually-impared-friendly store on the planet, you can bet they will. It's not like they don't already been having fun with using RFID tags. Case in point: Wal-Mart's top 100 suppliers have been told to have their products chipped by the first of this year. In other words, it's likely already in place. Not with ALL of them, mind you, but with many.
Regardless, it's not like self-check-out. What we're talking about is helping a visually-impared person find what they need... and likely making "helpful" suggestions along the way. In other words, helping them make considerably more sales than this visually-impared user would likely make if they simply grabbed an already-busy Wal-Mart employee to help them find something. And who's to say use of such devices would be limited to the visually-impared? Anyone not very familiar with a given store's layout would now have audible directions to what they want... again with "helpful" suggestions as they pass them. And... the "anti-theft" options are limitless. (X was in cart before checkout, Y was purchased, X is still in the cart... call security!)
Seems like a no-brainer for anyone looking at the numbers.
But you don't hear many stories like this about guide dogs, do you? Here is a typical training regime: The Phases of Guidework Training
Like dee one dat Ahhnuld has in dah Tuhminatah?
Den fuhst he spit een dee seenk in dee bathwoom, den leave dah bathwoom wit dee robot as dee peepul call him guhlie man and blindee boy and all uh that...
...which of course is offensive, with dee laws and dah blindness and dah deesabilitee ahcts and dee badly typed ahccents and things of dat nature.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Is RFID needed in EVERYTHING? RFID this, RFID that... Next thing we know, an RFID tagged dildo will go on /. and they'll be describing how it works.
Cat got your tongue?
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
RFID tech seems to have a good deal of buzz, or at least hype, in hardware headlines as of the last two years. I'm sure we would all like to stay ahead of the curve, and I myself have been trying just to catch up. But I've been having some trouble in finding useful and comprehensive material, at both the free space of the internet lvevl and that of my university library's. I'm wondering if anyone can share some technical information: books, links, advice on the subject, particularly on the hardware setup-with a budget- for a small range passive tag system. So far I've found at least http://www.rfida.com/index.htm to be of some help :)
permission from her landlord to raise a puppy for 18 months
permission from her employer to bring the puppy to work every day
mandatory attendance of weekly training courses
purchases of collar, leash, haltis
responsible for any medical costs under $500
daily socialization, including shopping malls, grocery stores, buses, doctor's and dentist's offices, theatres, movies, restaurants, elevators and sporting events.
(This is particularly challenging, since many store owners refuse to admit the dog, despite my sister's possession of a government-issued ID that explains the dog is a service dog. People often say, "But you're not blind!" -- they don't understand that people with hearing problems, as well as invisible disabilities, have these dogs, let alone that people need to train them first.)
Raising a puppy is serious work, but imagine you also need to teach that puppy to ignore food, stop at crosswalks, not chase sticks, ignore animals, and otherwise suppress many instincts. This requires an enormous amount of energy.
Those are just the requirements for the people raising dogs from 10 weeks through 18 months. For breeders and caretakers of puppies under 10 weeks, the people cannot work outside the home -- and they must take on many of the same challenges as the puppy raisers. As for dogs who finish basic training (at 18 months), many must move on to basic training with new trainers, who take on much the same role as the puppy raisers. Finally, after all of this work, the dog can be placed with a client (person with a disability) for specialized training.
Recruiting puppy breeders, raisers, and advanced trainers is a challenge for service dog societies, which also need to subsidize food, training and other products. And clients will eventually need to feed and care for the dogs. This is not a small amount of money.
Given all of these challenges, it would be interesting to see how a robot stacks up. If a robot cost $10,000 plus batteries, perhaps this is not actually much higher than the "value" of a dog that has been through 18+ months of training and must still be fed and cared for -- volunteer time and effects on the puppy raiser's workplace productivity should also be included in the calculation. Certainly, a robot may not provide companionship, but it may not be such a bad idea. With more time on their hands, volunteers could actually provide other programs for clients. Robots could be pre-programmed, so that the first 18-24 months of dog training could be skipped. And you don't need to buy kibble for a robot.
-- SYS 64738 --
As this topic is closely related to my own area of CS research, I was very interested to see the various comments on this matter. The first commenter (who pointed out that guide dogs provide more than simple directional guidance) has an excellent point; however, as others have pointed out, robots can process many types of information that dogs never could, can be programmed to do things that a dog simply cannot do, and can receive information from sources other than visual and auditory stimuli (as with the RFID tags).
As for the RFID tag conspiracy theorists: seriously, I completely understand your reservations about this technology, with all the talk of RFID-containing passports, and such. And I agree completely that this is a technology with a huge possibility of potential abuse, by agents as various as governmental agencies and "identity thieves". However, I think it's important to keep from losing sight of the fact that this is not an irreconcilably evil techology, by any means; it's not a bomb or a gun. There are so many ways this technology can be used to help people, as several users above have pointed out.
As for this robot itself (and its software): as we all know, speech recognition has a long way to go before it's really an optimised technology (especially when being used, say, in a crowded public place); nevertheless, I think the concept behind these robots is a great one, and I hope that he finds a way to make it marketable.
An assistance dog that has been attacked or in an otherwise threatening situation may be scarred for life and may not be able to continue as a guide/service dog.
Granted, training programs for assistance dogs may vary from place to place. However, when I checked a few websites (as well as that for the society for which my sister raises a puppy), I could not find any that say these dogs provide protection against intruders/attackers.
-- SYS 64738 --
I know this sounds cheesy, but the value of the companionship offered by a dog is something you haven't taken into account (and, indeed, can't have a dollar value assigned to it). I don't pretend to know anything about it, but I would imagine that having a disability such as visiom impairment would be socially isolating to a certain degree (most differences tend to have this effect in society, even those that don't limit mobility). The therapeutic value of having a pet is not to be ignored (a dog doesn't charge $100/hr :).
Another advantage is that a dog can adapt to new situations better than a typical robot. Also - though it has already been mentioned - a dog can help ensure safety (it is probably less likely to be stolen than an expensive electronic gadget)
Personally I have a severe dog allergy, so developing a robot to guide me if I was to go blind isn't a bad idea.
What does the dog need that RFID tag for? I'd understand the use of some kind of transponder system (WLAN, GPRS, UMTS...) for real data communication, either with a central (map) server, or even other robotic dogs in the surrounding, but I don't see the need for a short range identification tag.
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
This article caught my eye because I am a robotics researcher. Although I admire the intentions of the project, I think such a system design is hard to justify given other alternatives.
Here are some thoughts:
1) Using RFID tags for robot localization is inaccurate and probably not the best choice for fairly structured indoor environments like supermarkets. Just putting colored/patterned tiles on the floor or ceiling, or using indoor GPS would probably allow the robot to navigate better.
2) My gut feeling is that blind people want directions on how to find a particular product. Given simple audio advice similar to how GPS car navigation systems do: "turn left here, walk forward, etc" they would probably be able to use a cane or dog to get to the destination quicker, rather than having to follow around a slow-moving robot. So perhaps it would be better to give blind shoppers a small, portable indoor GPS enabled device when they enter the store that can always tell them where they are and give directions to where they want to go.
3) It would be very difficult to market something like this due to liability concerns. What happens if the robot accidentally leads the person into a sharp object, moving cart, irate grandmother, stairwell, etc... Any injury suffered by anyone involved that gets blamed on the robot will cause the personal injury lawyers to come knocking (especially here in the US, where the power of lawyers is very effective at discouraging new technology from entering society out of fear of liability).
4) As an aside, having RFID tags to identify various products that a blind shopper would want to buy, and then giving them a handheld scanner they could use to check products and prices on shelves might be useful.
-James
Part of the benefit of having a guide dog is that it can be a true companion to a blind person, and many times more trustworhty than a robot. A dog isn't going to crash and require a reboot, and kibble is easier to figure out than rechargeable batteries.
And most importantly: the dog won't eat their medicine for fuel.
These folks train miniature horses as guide animals.
The dog/robot would piss on him, or something.
Heh, heh he does that!
At least they haven't done the obvious yet- RFID-equiped guard dogs. It wouldn't take much- an 8-barelled flamethrower on 8 motion detectors stacked on top of a mobile platform that disarms when a person has the correct RFID badge- and you'd have the perfect guard duty robot.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
A friggen shark with a friggen laser array mounted on its forehead takes care of those flamethrower-equipped dogs.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.