Slashdot Mirror
Silicon Valley Library Tests Book-Returning Robot Created By Google (siliconvalley.com)
What if a robot came to your house to retrieve library books? An anonymous reader quotes the Bay Area Newsgroup:
Residents in downtown Mountain View have gotten their first peek at the future with the debut of BookBot, the library's newest non-human helper. A creation of Google's Area 120 -- an experimental division of the technology juggernaut -- the bot is the company's first personal delivery robot to hit the streets and begin interacting with the public, said Christian Bersch, the project's team lead. It's part of a program to test the waters of what could be possible for autonomous, electric robots, he said...
The pilot will run for nine months with a human handler following behind the BookBot for the first six months, he said. That's just to make sure it's operating as planned, get it out of trouble as needed and observe how people are responding. After that, a human will sit behind the controls remotely. And, on a recent Thursday, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Children shrieked at the sight of the robot and immediately jumped in its path to see if it would stop. (It does...) Users must schedule the pickup time in advance, which -- because the bot is fairly popular -- means planning at least a week ahead. It can carry up to about 10 items, Bersch said, depending on the size of the books.
The pilot will run for nine months with a human handler following behind the BookBot for the first six months, he said. That's just to make sure it's operating as planned, get it out of trouble as needed and observe how people are responding. After that, a human will sit behind the controls remotely. And, on a recent Thursday, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Children shrieked at the sight of the robot and immediately jumped in its path to see if it would stop. (It does...) Users must schedule the pickup time in advance, which -- because the bot is fairly popular -- means planning at least a week ahead. It can carry up to about 10 items, Bersch said, depending on the size of the books.
'Valley tests bullshit by Google that will be restricted to the test because it is expensive bullshit.'. FIFY
Just when you think they hit peak silicon valley, this one goes to 11.
Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
In a digitally-transformed publishing world, we have AI-powered robots that handle returns of library books?
Look, I love books and libraries. But Google, I think you may be doing it wrong.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Maybe it's marginally useful in a senior citizen home providing services to the bedridden.
Otherwise I think it's just embarrassing.
They'll turn humanity into this.
Someone should shoot your high school English teacher.
Someone should shoot your ethics teacher! Your stalking apk by unidentifiable anon or impersonating him is why. Learn to read and get on topic.
Guys, it would be better to have a robot that scans the book and deliver the digital and physical to Intenet Archive so it can be stored on the OpenLibrary.org.
I'm purely guessing, but cannot believe that ebooks are not wholesale replacing actual paper and pages.
Which makes Googles experiment either :
- a "we've got so much freaking cash let's have fun" experiment
- a wolf in sheep's clothing as this is either the future of pizza and Amazon delivery, just wrapped up in a neutral package, OR a means to swot your house if you're found in violation of the leftist norms polluting Google, and as speach is violence, this provides a means for the soft sjws to terminate with prejudice folks who tweet stuff like "boys are biologically different than girls."
You're 'geeks'! Look @ a BRIGHT side: You're @ least SOMEWHAT PREPARED for new careers as robot-techs (it's PC related w/ servo motors pretty much, right?)
* THINK ABOUT IT...
APK
P.S.=> Am I for robots? Not really - HOWEVER: It's a "yes/no" thing like many things are!
Robotics robs "the uneducated unwashed unskilled masses" (who should have attained marketable skills vs. this) of mindless menial jobs!
(Overall - not good, stops taxpayers & put them on welfare roles property owners like me pay for in LARGE BULK vs. workers (or business which now leases plant/property/equipment vs. building & owning so they can tell politiicians "do what I SAY or we PULL OUT this town - good luck being re-elected after that when voters BLAME YOU, not I")!
Does robotics increase producitivity + overall LOWER overheads (liability/insurance/payroll etc.)?
I think HOSTESS & their twinkies proved t does iirc but WHO WILL BUY THE TWINKIES when you are put on a "hand-to-mouth" existence where there is LITTLE TO NO "disposable income" fun-money & only food/heat/electric/water/rent-mortgage/taxes come 1st?
Ask yourselves ALL that - you decide... apk
Premise 1. Before the computer-robot-techno age, retrieving overdue books back to the free public lending library was a big deal, still is, to make sure all can enjoy the item. From that perspective, this is indeed a neat achievement, for the reasons stated, because people get lazy about the returns, so this makes it simple, in a hassle-free non-retaliatory way. But, the very technologies that make this possible have also changed the nature of libraries and public consumption of media, so there are novel better ways to use BookBot.
Premise 2. I love books. I have a huge library at home. I love libraries. I also love my desktop computer and ability to read large tracts of writing and other content from remote sources, on demand, and find things that otherwise would be unknown or inaccessible, with the supreme convenience of not having to drive to the library which isn't open anyway at 2 AM. What I have come to realize is that some books are better because they are books, codices that you can hold in your hand and flip the pages. But some books are valuable for their content only, and reading on a screen is more practical, and having a pdf or other digital version without wasting real space with a physical volume or magazine is preferable.
Here is how the book bot could work better. Sure, use it to collect overdue books, that is a worthy purpose. Even better, use it to deliver books to people who cannot get out of the house, a digital age bookmobile.
And third, allow users to place a book of their own on deposit with the library. When the book gets there, the library will scan it for you (because you might not have the time or resources to do so at home), and then send you the digital file in whatever format you prefer. With the user's permission or preference, (1) the user could leave the real book with the library, a donation to the public holdings, because it is no longer needed at home because you now have the digital format, and (2) make the digital version publicly accessible.
We have huge online libraries such as archives.org, HathiTrust, university libraries, Library of Congress, and many others. But, they are either pay-walled, or restricted to tuition paying registrants, or they are free but simply do not have what you are looking for, or it could be years before they get around to digitizing the thing you want. Allowing BookBot to pick up a book you no longer need or would prefer the e-book would make life easier for the user and contribute to the public, all in a friendly neighborly way. Modern digital technologies have forced libraries to rapidly reassess their purpose and retool for new ways of doing things. BookBot could serve its original purpose of solving the age old problem of book returns, or its role can be expanded for new tasks, born of the digital age, that extend the reach of the library and the knowledge therein.
Who will win?
It will work mostly ok for the 6 months where there is a human supervisor, and as soon as it's fully autonomous it will disappear within a week, to be found smashed up in an alleyway somewhere.
Google obviously doesn't know how people use the library. You go to the library, check out books, then when you're done reading those books, you go back to the library, return the old books and get a new batch. Google - it's a freaking ENDLESS LOOP. There is ZERO need to pickup the books unless you can actually deliver new books at the same time. Geesh, the tech world has been taken over by the brainless fucktards.
The definition of marketable skills is constantly changing. Perhaps we should focus on general-purpose education and stop requiring 25 years experience in a 2 year old technology.
See subject & AGREED, 110% - education in elementary schools? INDOCTRINATION rather imo ala "George Washington never told a lie"? LMAO - ok - 1st politician I've ever heard of who DOESN'T LIE!
* Good point on your part though... how to determine it? WISDOM (what youth FAILS in, not their fault, they haven't LIVED long enough) - who do you TRUST "when everyone's a crook" (quoting a band called Queensryche from the tune "Revolution Calling").
A revolution... of the mind. THAT can't happen when BULLSHIT is put out there by "LEFTISTS" weaklings - losers - who CAN'T STAND ON THEIR OWN & resent those who do & project strength of independent thought + accomplishment. Those scum HAVE to "join gangs" (of some form) - otherwise, they are weak (& gangs they DO compose? Only as STRONG as weakest links that compose them - all WEAK/whimps).
APK
P.S.=> HOWEVER - For me, since I consider my life on a "downslope" now to the grave @ near 55 yrs. of age? It's on the youngsters to SHAPE IT RIGHT now (or it will "go to hell" & what a shame, after all humanity's built up)... apk
By down slope APK means downward spiral as he lives in a $1 house sucking trucker dick to make rent since his live in boyfriend, woops I mean roommate, left him. The pinnacle of his existence was writing a file aggregrator that someone in week 2 of a highschool coding class could do.
See subject: Well? Should I put out the FACT my home/car etc. - et al is paid in full LONG ago OR that software I do is in commercially sold products too??
* HOW ABOUT YOU???
Listen: IF you're BILL GATES & can PROVABLY DEMONSTRATE you've done BETTER, earlier + MORE than I? Hey - I'd listen & MAYBE "take a page outta YOUR playbook"... but then again??
RoTfLmAo - I truly KNOW a WORM like you can't prove anything about your WASTED LIFE self... hahahahaha!
APK
P.S.=> FACT! There's NOTHING like FACT to dispose of DO-NOTHING douches like you - & of course, allowing YOU the FAIR CHANCE to prove me wrong (which you NEVER manage, lol - only your own SELF-defeat vs. me, constantly which YES I thank you for - you make ME look GOOD & you + those like you? Well, lol - I let others judge (& they know you're crap, like YOU do about yourself - after all - you can't even STAND BEHIND YOUR WORDS & stalk me by UNIDENTIFIABLE ac posts, lol))... apk
Prior to the widespread use of digital publishing, book returning robots would always encounter intractable problems involving logistics and inventory management. With digital publishing, book-returning robots can simply oxidize and disperse any returned materials which are in excess of their [current] unallocated carrying capacity.
The book shelving robots could be out on the floor all day every day until human shelvers. Combine this with multidirectional cameras and they could be used to help provide the government with that list of dissidents visiting the libraries to read 'content of interest' and flag them. Currently their only way of doing that is recording book searches on the computers, and cross referencing them with checkouts, assuming they have access to both systems. If you combine this with the other two techniques, it is effectively the same as if the librarians were directly complicit and gave them live video feeds from security cameras in the Library (I'm not sure on the quantity or quality of library security cameras today.)
This should be quite chilling to those of you who still believe in free thinking as well as dissenting opinions and thought. If you thought the anti-communist witchhunts of the 30s-50s were bad, just wait until you see what they can do with dissenting voices today...
I'd be annoyed if my library spent its funds on something like this.
However, I'm sure the company which made this is data mining the video feed and reselling all that info. Great for linking people's faces to their address, for constantly updating mapping details, mapping wifi networks, scanning license plates, checking fence and house quality to inform local contractors, etc... They'll probably force you to watch a couple ads before the bin opens to let you insert your books. After all, they need to earn money to support this free service. Just like how ATMs were all free because they saved the banks tons of money from opening new offices, but now those cost savings are completely ignored and instead ATMs are now an expense which requires fees to operate.
Fuck off APK
Regardless of how useful this service is, it's a dangerous path for the library because Google has shown to not support anything beyond the biggest of smashing hits. People who subscribed to Google Fiber found themselves cut off when Google didn't realize insane profit. This library will likely find itself with a similar problem if it develops any sort of reliance on this Google service.