[access-uk] Re: Wal-mart has new robot to help visually impaired customers.
- From: "Steve Dryden" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 10:15:33 +0100
Hey George, I like this. I want to know when they're going to employ K9!
Smiles!
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: George Bell
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 10:00 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Wal-mart has new robot to help visually impaired
customers.
I thought some supermarket shoppers might be amused by the following?
George.
Wal-Mart Tests Robots for Blind Shoppers
By Evan Schuman
LOGAN, Utah, May 16 -- Wal-Mart started quietly testing a university-created
robot designed to help visually impaired consumers navigate store aisles and
find their desired products.
The robot-named RG, for Robotic Guide-is the creation of Vladimir Kulyukin,
an assistant professor of computer science at Utah State University and the
director of the university's Computer Science Assistive Technology Laboratory.
The initial version of RG-which weighs about 22 pounds and is roughly the
height of an upright vacuum cleaner-is limited to three basic functions.
First, it guides the consumer through the aisles and around people, displays
and merchandise using RFID readers and 16 ultrasonic sonars.
Its second function is to communicate with the consumer. It takes
instructions via a small Braille directory of products that is attached to the
robot's
handle, and it replies to the shopper's questions with spoken answers.
The third function is to use its RFID reader to locate the desired products.
The store's RFID tags help the robot navigate the lanes as well as locate
products.
"There are RFID sensors placed on the shelves in the store. The robot has the
RFID antennae and detects the presence of those tags," Kulyukin said. "That's
how it knows it's reached the Colgate section of the toothpaste shelf and it
then announces, 'You have reached the Colgate toothpaste section, on your
right.'"
The robot has its limitations, though. Until item-level tagging becomes the
norm, the system can indicate only the part of the shelf where the product is
supposed to be. If it's been moved-either by an employee moving stock who
forgot to move or update the RFID tag or by another consumer who put a tube of
Aim toothpaste amidst the Colgate-the visually impaired consumer might grab
the wrong product.
The robot's development is still at a very early stage and has thus far
mostly been paid for with a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation,
Kulyukin said. He is negotiating with a large national retail chain to buy
the units and invest in its further development.
Adapted with permission from eWeek.com. Copyright (c) 2005 Ziff Davis Media
Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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