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

Hell no the end of dogs.

[FireballX301]

I have a cousin who is blind and uses a guide dog. A few weeks ago, his dog essentially mauled some burgler attempting a home invasion.

Robots may be fine and dandy for lab rat use, but in the real world where unexpected things happen, you need to have something that can adapt to emergencies, something that robots won't be able to do for a while.

Re:Hell no the end of dogs.

[mangu]

I find animals much more reliable and predictable than any system I've used.

Then you should find better systems to use. Animals can be trained and reliable, up to a point.

The difference between animals and artificial systems is that when you build things you know how they are made. Animals are closed source, you don't know how they work, all you know is a how a limited set of input/output pairs work. When a machine fails you can debug it, find what went wrong, redesign, rebuild, and retest.

If I had to depend on something for my survival, I'd rather pick a well designed, thoroughly tested machine, rather than an animal. For companionship and affection, OTOH, I'd pick a human being with whom I can interact in a much more satisfactory way than with an animal (insert sheep joke here).

Re:Hell no the end of dogs.

[TheLink]

Yeah, but when they start talking about AI. It appears a lot of AI designs are pretty nondeterministic compared to programming.

And complex computer programs aren't that deterministic. Not that reliable and predictable.

Just select a suitable dog, and it'll be more reliable and predictable than the blind person its supposed to help. Whereas there are many complex computer systems which don't seem to be nearly that reliable and predictable.

It'll be hard to build a machine that could do as much for a blind person that a dog could do.

Just go list down the features:
1) Most dogs have at least some theory of mind so it is easier for them to have some understanding of the owner's needs even if the owner doesn't explicitly state them - owner could be unconscious or somewhat conscious but incoherent/not his usual self.
2) They can learn the owners habits.
3) They are many many generations ahead of any AI I've seen, and my bullshit meter doesn't swing to the limit when it comes to claims about dogs being intelligent. Heck some are probably smarter than more than a few people one might know ;)
4) Very cheap for what they do.
5) Low maintenance for what they do - in fact having to take the dog for walks is a "feature" - the owner gets health benefits too ;).

Many more...

The canine OS is still better for now

[ScentCone]

Sure, the dog can't pick out the right canned food on the shelf, but it can see a car coming from two blocks away, sense unstable ground, and pick up on unsavory people's body language in a second. I'm not blind, but walking with my dogs alerts me to things I'd never notice otherwise - they are truly amazing critters. I hope my eyes are good for the rest of my life, but hopefully we'll have direct visual cortex stimulation from implants or some other solution before I have to depend on a mobile robot to help me get around. In the meantime, it's Fido for me.

Re:Obligitory Something Awful Reference

[pr0f3550r]

Get your pak chooie unf here
The following is provided for the 5 people who don't know what Something Awful is. Transcript as follows:

Corn_Boy - wassup
Corn_Boy - what is the time there?
Lowtax - 11 pm
Corn_Boy - wow, why are you woking so late?
Corn_Boy - what kind of work do you do
Lowtax - VE and SA stuff
Corn_Boy - whats that
Lowtax - VE - Virginian Empire SA - Secretary's Alliance
Corn_Boy - is the secretarys alliance like a union
Lowtax - Kind of. Mostly we just go over to Marcie's house after work and gossip, go to the rodeos, wash cars, etc etc. We also lobby congress.
Lowtax - What do you think about robots?
Corn_Boy - the ones that make the cars?
Lowtax - No, space robots
Corn_Boy - I dont know, I havent met one yet, but I guess they would be cool
Lowtax - I am building a space robot, that's why I asked.
Corn_Boy - ok, will it be going into space?
Lowtax - I am trying. It will be a very useful robot. I am giving it AI. Do you know what that stands for?
Corn_Boy - who is al? do you not like him and is that why you are giving him to the robot
Lowtax - No, AL is my friend, AI means "Abnormal Interests". I learned that and I'm programming my robot to act like a human.
Corn_Boy - like in the disney movie
Lowtax - What is Disney? I don't watch movies, I had to use the parts from my VCR to build my space robot.
Corn_Boy - from a vcr, wow, how does that work
Lowtax - I will tell you, but it is a secret so you can't tell anybody
Corn_Boy - ok, I wont, I promise
Lowtax - I am using the CLOCK in it to have the robot tell time!!!
Corn_Boy - will it have a gun
Lowtax - NO! I am non-violent, and I do not enjoy guns and violence!!! It will have a broom and fishtank and vaccuum. The Ultimate Space Robot!
Corn_Boy - you must be real smarte to be albe to make a space robot, my parents have a dvd player thing, can you turn that into a robot, it has a lasre in it
Lowtax - I can turn everything into Space Robots!
Corn_Boy - have you made many other robots?
Lowtax - Yes, but they don't work the way they were supposed to. One was a BIG ACCIDENT my friend
Corn_Boy - what happened
Lowtax - Grandma fell down the stairs
Corn_Boy - did the robot push her was she alright
Lowtax - I misprogrammed it. I tried to do good, but the robot jumped up and pushed grandma's head and she started spitting and her teeth flew out and the robot shot sparks and grandma fell down the stairs onto my uncle.
It was the worst Christmas ever.
Corn_Boy - oh no! sparks, did anything catch on fire
Lowtax - Grandma did, but I got a Pusher robot to shove her outside into the snow.
Corn_Boy - that was lucky, we have christmass in the sumer here, so no snow, you are lucky that you live there, very lucky!
Lowtax - Where do you live?!?
Corn_Boy - I am in new zealand
Lowtax - Wow! I was going to build a robot for a company in New Zealand! They are named "Ochnop Technologies" - have you heard of them?
Corn_Boy - no sorry, I do not know much about the robot industre
Lowtax - You should, some day robots will be in your house! Wether you know it or not!

Pusher robots
Shover robots
Force robots
Bumping robots
you know!
Corn_Boy - I hope that they dont go crasy and shoot me
Lowtax - ROBOTS DO NOT SHOOTS Guns shoots and robots dont go crazy unless you tell them too.
The Pusher robot I am making will shove around the blind people and take them to the store. Then the Shover robot will push bread into their throats.
Corn_Boy - you mucst be a very nice person to be making helper robots
Lowtax - I like to do my part. One day my Space Robots will revolutionize the world! And space!
Lowtax - Space has a terrible power!
Corn_Boy - do you mean like the worm-holes from star trek
Lowtax - I do not watch star trek, it is LIES!@! Space has a terrible po

Re:That's not the original.

[Astin]

yes.. yes it did. And a friend of mine wrote the original too. I remember the day she produced the crumply lined piece of paper she had hand-written it on in class a few years before I saw it. Ah, the minor, unknown celebrities of then net....

Re:Dogs have many uses

[melandy]

The dog is going to go into a state of extreme alertness and defensiveness and will try to let everyone in the house know about what its discovered irrespective of whether it was trained to be a guard dog or not.

[snip]

Dogs [snip] can tell when there is something "wrong" with their master.

This is absolutely true. Dogs are truly amazing creatures. Dogs in familys with new children are especially intriguing. Most will form an especially close bond with a new baby, and are often more effective at getting a parent's attention than baby monitors. They usually stand guard over the baby whenever someone new is in the house (as often happens with newborns), and if something just doesn't feel right, everyone will know about it.

My dad is blind (no, he doesn't have a dog, but I wish he would get one) and just from experience of me leading him around, it's not possible to do it synthetically. There's simply too much information to process... too many stimuli to evaluate. While a robot can navigate hallways, maybe even curbs, it can't judge if someone is holding a door open for you, or is going to let it slam in your face. I have seen guide dogs do this. It's uncanny how well they can judge a stranger's intentions.

Oh, and for those not in the know, guide dogs will only eliminate on command, so they won't be dropping little brown presents on the floor of the A&P. That's one of the first things they are taught.