Robots to Help the Blind

Timberwolf0122 writes "Computer scientists in the US have developed a robot that could help blind people to shop or find their way around large buildings. Utilising a RFID tags to find products and a laser range finder to avoid obsticals. The prototype was developed at Utah State University, is this the end of guide dogs?"

Comments

Re:Simple answer: No.

[tomhudson]

At least a robot won't get you into this sort of predicament:

I LIKE SEEING-EYE DOGS

The pet store was selling them for five cents a piece. I thought that
odd since they were normally a couple thousand each. I decided not to
look a gift horse in the mouth. I bought 200. I like seeing-eye dogs.

I took my 200 seeing-eye dogs home. I have a big car. I let one drive. His
name was Sigmund. He was retarded. In fact, none of them were really
bright. They kept licking their genitals. I laughed.
Then they bit my genitals. I stopped laughing.

I herded them into my room. They didn't adapt very well to their new
environment. They would bark, hurl themselves off of the couch at
high speeds and slam into the wall. Although humorous at first, the
spectacle lost its novelty halfway into its third hour.

Two hours later I found out why all the seeing-eye dogs were so inexpensive:
they all died. No apparent reason. They all just sorta' dropped dead.
Kinda' like when you buy a goldfish and it dies five hours later. Damn
cheap seeing-eye dogs.

I didn't know what to do. There were 200 dead seeing-eye dogs lying all over my
room, on the bed, in the dresser, hanging from my bookcase. It looked
like I had 200 cheap hair pieces.

I tried to flush one down the toilet. It didn't work. It got stuck.
Then I had one dead, wet seeing-eye dog and 199 dead, dry seeing-eye dogs.

I tried pretending that they were just stuffed animals. That worked for
a while, that is until they began to decompose. It started to smell real
bad.

I had to pee but there was a dead seeing-eye dog in the toilet and I didn't want
to call the plumber. I was embarrassed.

I tried to slow down the decomposition by freezing them. Unfortunately
there was only enough room for two seeing-eye dogs at a time so I had to change
them every 30 seconds. I also had to eat all the food in the freezer so
it didn't all go bad.

I tried burning them. Little did I know my bed was flammable. I had to
extinguish the fire.

Then I had one dead, wet seeing-eye dog in my toilet, two dead, frozen seeing-eye dogs in
my freezer, and 197 dead, charred seeing-eye dogs in a pile on my bed. The odor
wasn't improving.

I became agitated at my inability to dispose of my seeing-eye dogs and to use the
bathroom. I severely beat one of my seeing-eye dogs. I felt better.

I tried throwing them way but the garbage man said that the city wasn't
allowed to dispose of charred dogs. I told him that I had a wet
one. He couldn't take that one either. I didn't bother asking about the
frozen ones.

I finally arrived at a solution. I gave them out as Christmas gifts. My
friends didn't know quite what to say. They pretended that they like
them but I could tell they were lying. Ingrates. So I bit them in
the genitals.

I like seeing-eye dogs