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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.
Exactly. Walmart already has carts with motors for disabled shoppers. They also have a "greeter" by the door who can easily recognize blind people entering the store and direct them to this special cart.
This is the sort of thing companies like Walmart love. It costs very little, and looks very good even to those who will never need it.
"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.
I wish michael would stop ACCEPTING submissions from Roland. I'm getting fedup with spammers like him. Why link to him when there are the originals which ARE a bigger source of info. I wouldn't like this middleman stuff even if his primdi thing would be without advertisements in an easy to read format, but i refuse to make him live from this kind of spam.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Rolland is one middleman I can do without. I wonder how much OSDN is making for Rollan's submissions, or failing that, I wonder how much Rolland is slipping micheal.
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.
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)
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