Hello:
Although a well trained human could do a better job than a robot,
finding that human can be difficult. I live in an area that does not have
public transit, so I must hire a reader to go shopping. My readers know the
stores well, so I can get what I need easily. When they do need to find a
staff person, even a sighted person can find it difficult. Wall-Mart for
example has been trying out self-serve checkout counters. These things don't
work very well, but they are trying to cut staff to an absolute minimum. I
can understand why Wall-Mart or other stores would like a robotic solution.
Regards,
Robert
Robert Jaquiss
230 Peach Tree Drive
West Monroe, Louisiana 71291-8653
Phone: (318) 396-1853
Email: rjaquiss@earthlink.net
Web site: http://www.viewinternational.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews@visi.com>
To: <nfb-rd@nfbcal.org>; <promotion-technology@nfbnet.org>;
<nfbcs@nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 5:28 PM
Subject: [Promotion-technology] Robots To Help Blind People Shop:
>
>>It is interesting to see the lengths they will go, when a
>>well-informed human being would be 1000 times better.
>
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>> >
>> > Major Retailer Tests Robots for Blind Shoppers
>> > By Evan Schuman 2005-05-15
>> >
>> > Some visually impaired shoppers in Utah can already
>> > walk into one of the retail giant's stores and shop with
>> > an RFID-reading, voice-synthesized R2D2 wannabe. One
>> > large national retailer has 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. The navigation
>> > system is sophisticated enough to handle
>> > environments-including elevators and limited open
>> > spaces-that usually literally trip up robots, Kulyukin
>> > said.
>> >
>> > The university has posted quite a few videos of RG
>> > in various stages of testing.
>> >
>> > 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 the
>> > 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.
>> >
>> > "It certainly can be jumbled, and there is the potential
>> > to pick up the wrong product," Kulyukin said, adding
>> > that his team is trying to add a robotic bar code into
>> > the system so that the robot would announce the
>> > product being placed in the cart. That functionality
>> > would likely address most of the mistaken product
>> > purchases, he said.
>> >
>> > 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.
>> >
>> > Kulyukin refused to identify the chain, but an employee
>> > in the university's public relations department, Whitney
>> > Wilkinson, said the chain was indeed Wal-Mart.
>> > Kulyukin also said Wal-Mart was testing it locally.
>> >
>> > Shortly after this story appeared, Wal-Mart attorneys
>> > and a representative a Wal-Mart's public relations
>> > department called Wilkinson and others at Utah State.
>> > Wilkinson then stepped back from her comment,
>> > explaining that she meant that the local outlet of Wal-
>> > Mart had been testing the robot and that she had no
>> > knowledge of anything beyond that. Kulyukin said
>> > that the local Wal-Mart store was using the robot for
>> > its customers and that any references to
>> > "negotiating" with Wal-Mart were about the terms
>> > of the usage.
>> >
>> > Kulyukin also said that there is a large national
>> > retail chain exploring a financial investment in his
>> > department's robot, but he continued to decline
>> > to identify the chain.
>> >
>> > The store manager of the Wal-Mart store in North
>> > Logan, Utah, right near the university's labs,
>> > confirmed that RG had arrived.
>> >
>> > "It's a great thing for the customers who don't
>> > have their eyesight," said Wal-Mart store manager
>> > Ron Tuttle. "We have a lot of customers who come
>> > in and ask for someone to help them. I talked with
>> > one lady and she was very excited about it
>> > because it makes her feel more independent."
>> >
>> > Next Page: Keeping the cost low.
>> >
>> > The cost of the robots will vary depending on how
>> > many of them Kulyukin's team is asked to create,
>> > but he purposely kept the cost low. To create a
>> > second robot would cost him about $10,000, he
>> > said, adding that the per-unit cost would drop to
>> > about $4,000 to $5,000 if thousands were
>> > ordered and to about $1,500 if millions were
>> > ordered. He said he will need about $3 million
>> > to $5 million in seed money to move to the next
>> > stage of development and production.
>> > The technical hardware of the system is simple:
>> > Most of the components sit in a PVC pipe structure.
>> > The robot's microcontroller is attached to a laptop,
>> > with which it communicates via serial cable. The
>> > laptop also can communicate using an 802.11b
>> > wireless card.
>> >
>> > Kulyukin said he has spent much of his life focused
>> > on using technology to help those with physical
>> > challenges, partly to help his brother, who has
>> > always had severe hearing disabilities. "Growing
>> > up as the brother of a disabled child, I know
>> > firsthand how harsh the environment can be on
>> > you," he said.
>> >
>> > The problem of blind shoppers is fairly widespread.
>> > The National Institutes of Health's National Eye
>> > Institute estimates that 80 million Americans today
>> > have potentially blinding eye diseases and 1.1
>> > million people are legally blind.
>> >
>> > "Approximately 12 million people have some degree
>> > of visual impairment that cannot be corrected by
>> > glasses, and more than 100 million people need
>> > corrective lenses to see properly," the institute's
>> > Web site says.
>> >
>> > Given that RG is only in very limited experimentation
>> > today, how do most blind consumers shop? "They
>> > simply don't go grocery shopping," Kulyukin said. "If
>> > you happen to have a sighted spouse or a friend,
>> > that's what you do. [RG] is an independence device."
>> >
>> > The business side of the retail argument for these
>> > robots is twofold. First, the people who shop for
>> > those blind consumers might not shop at the places
>> > those consumers would want. These kinds of robots
>> > would return the store-selection power back to
>> > those consumers.
>> >
>> > Secondly, not many grocery stores have the financial
>> > resources of a Wal-Mart to invest in this level of
>> > robotic technology. Arguably, this could be a major
>> > differentiating factor in bringing visually impaired
>> > customers-and their friends and families-to Wal-Mart
>> > who might otherwise have shopped at the competition.
>> >
>> > Kulyukin also said that having a small squadron of
>> > robots around a retail shop could be valuable in
>> > other ways. When there are no customers using
>> > the robots, they can assist in moving merchandise,
>> > carrying extremely heavy boxes and unloading
>> > trucks. After all, what good is having a bionic robotic
>> > arm if it's not flexed once in a while?
>> >
>> > The robot "doesn't have to sit idly in the store. It
>> > can optimize the store's supply operations,"
>> > Kulyukin said. "Instead of letting a truck come to
>> > the store and having it unloaded manually, load it
>> > onto the robot and then let the robot deliver it."
>
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