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New Robot Can Help You Find Your Way
BoingBoing is reporting that a new robotic assistant may soon be able to help you find your way the next time you are lost in a mall or a supermarket. The latest demonstration from the Osaka-based Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) showcased "Robovie", a semi-humanoid robot designed to monitor up to 20 people at a time and classify each person's behavior into one of 10 categories (waiting, wandering, walking fast, etc). Whenever it was able to classify someone as disoriented it would approach them and ask "are you lost", if the answer was yes it provided directions, otherwise it just recommended nearby shops and restaurants.
...welcome our well-meaning, friendly robotic overlords, and greatly appreciate their help.
After which I could say "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto"?
Why would this be better than a couple of those big store maps with a you-are-here marker and a store legend? Unless it actually directs you to follow it to your destination like a stormtrooper following a mouse droid down the halls of the Death Star. Then it'd be awesome!
Demented But Determined.
Clippy come back, all is forgiven!
Paid Q&A/Research
Damn lameness filter. Please read in all caps.
What are you doing?
ARE you shop lifting??
you are SHOPLIFTING
shoplifter... shoplifter
exterminate!
exterminate!
ex - term - i - nate!
"Computer, where is the transporter room?" "Oh! An escort.... how quaint."
http://www.CelloFourteGroupie.net
Also, that robot is creepy as hell, I mean, the head looks like a human skull! Is ATR by any chance a division of Cyberdyne?
It seems to me that it would be too difficult to classify if somebody is truly lost other than through the most obvious signals.
Maybe someone is walking fast because they're lost.
Maybe they're waiting because they're lost, and moving around would just make it worse. There would also probably be numerous cases of the robot classifying people as "disoriented" when they're really not. Mind you I could be wrong about all of these things and perhaps they were taken into consideration already. However, a video of the robot in demonstration or some such would help me (and others) to judge for themselves. Lastly, what the robot would classify as "disoriented" is unclear.
...that detects when you are shop lifting and hits you with a tazer!!!
I'll save those that reply the obligatory "don't taze me bro!!"
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
in a pair of steel toe capped boots, methinks. Then it's out to the yard to practice some field goals.
"He Who Dares Wins"
They struck me as more like:
You will accept my help.
You will not shoplift.
Resistance is useless.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
ROBOT: Are you lost, sir?
ME: Go away or I will light you on fire.
ROBOT: If you are not lost, perhaps you would like to shop at one of the stores that paid to advertise to you in this way.
ME:
CROWD: Huzzah! Huzzah!
SECURITY GUARD: Hey! You can't do that!
ME: Keep these goddamn walking billboards away from me or you're next, asshole.
CROWD: Huzzah! Huzzah!
It's any thing like the self check outs then keep it out of the stores if you are not willing to do a lot of testing be for deploying it.
"The uncanny valley is not a sweet spot."
Why couldn't they have made it just some adorable little round thing? *shudder*
Robot: Are you lost? May I assist you?
Foreign Tourist: Why, yes. Can you direct me to the....(consults foreign-language/English dictionary)...."Deep Fried Human Babies" store?
Robot: Yes, McDonald's is located in the Food Plaza, located at the top of the escalators. Good day and thank you for shopping MegaMall!
Pretty soon a snow plow came by, and she started to follow it. She followed the plow for about 45 minutes. Finally, the driver of the plow got out and asked her what she was doing. She explained, that her dad had told her, if she ever got stuck in the snow, to follow a plow.
The driver nodded and said, "Well, I'm done with the Walmart parking lot, now you can follow me over to K-Mart."
Question: would the robotic snow plow driver stop and ask the blonde for her phone number?
This is really a godsend. Three out of the last 4 times I have been in a supermarket I have gotten lost. The last time, I was unable to find the exit before closing time and was trapped until morning. One time I lost my girlfriend in there and she had to take a cab home later when she finally made her way out the international foods section. I mean the layout of these places in parallel aisles is just mind-boggling, it might as well be a hedge maze. Now, with these robots, I might be able to enter the supermarket without so much anxiety.
ROBOT: Are you looking for a store that sells garbage cans, sir? Can I suggest you try the Bloomingdale's for that, sir? They are having a special on kitchen goods today.
Isn't there any worries that a question such as "Aren't you lost, sir?" from a friendly robot with glowing red eyes might be misinterpreted as "Weren't you just on your way out, sir?"
Linux is user friendly. It's just very particular who it's friends are.
Me: I'm lost. Can you help me find the bread?
Robot: It's by the stairs.
Me: Where are the stairs?
Robot: I will push you to the stairs.
Robot 2: Do not trust the pusher robot. He is malfunctioning.
Robot: Please go stand by the stairs.
Robot 2: I will shove the bread down your throat.
Robot: Do not listen to the shover robot. I will protect you at the bottom of the stairs.
Towards the Singularity.
... also, I can kill you with my brain.
As robots become more common in society, questions arise about how they will be controlled. One way to regulate robot behavior is to form legal contracts with their owners.
Benjamin Wright, Dallas, Texas, benjaminwright.us
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Bring on the spam delivering robots! They pronounce the obfuscation punctuation too.
Hold it Robovie! Consider this: You are programmed to help the lost. But many of those you try to help are in fact, not lost. I submit to you, that you cannot find your way to only those that are lost, and logically, you are actually lost.
But this will only work if head wasn't built with paradox-absorbing crumple-zones.
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
...its next functonality will be testing for 'evil terrorist' behaviour.
Seeing that the states are more and more interested in making '1984' look like a childrens book about paradise, I would not be surprised at all.
And in a few years, my bet would be on arming these things, requiring a remote permission to fire. Which will, of course, fail. Due to the Evil Terrorists, according to the media.
Sorry for ma bad mood, but I've been reading global news again.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
How long before someone posts a "Kick Me" sign on it's back?
My only question is "How long before the local kids decide it's boring to torment the thing?"
How do u get lost in a supermarket or mall? Think the person that does needs more than a robot.