Posted 11.09.2011 at 1:55 pm
8 Comments
Robo-Dog Leads the Way
Japanese company NSK has pulled off the mother of all Kinect hacks, and all they had to do was build a fully functioning robotic dog around Microsoft’s gaming peripheral. With help from Tokyo-based University of Electro-Communications, NSK has built a robotic guide dog for the visually impaired that uses a Kinect to evaluate and understand its environment and help its owner safely navigate.
The wheeled canine is activated when the user puts pressure on its handle, letting it know the user is ready to go. The robo-dog then speaks to the user in a computerized female voice, giving the user details about the environment and potential obstacles and commands on how to negotiate them. The robo-dog glides on its wheels on flat surfaces, but it can also climb up and down stairs and other obstacles if it needs to.
Future iterations will include voice commands (from user to robotic pooch) and GPS for better navigation. In the meantime, the laboratory prototype is still pretty impressive, if a bit loud.
8 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
April 2013: How It Works
For our annual How It Works issue, we break down everything from the massive Falcon Heavy rocket to a tiny DNA sequencer that connects to a USB port. We also take a look at an ambitious plan for faster-than-light travel and dive into the billion-dollar science of dog food.
Plus the latest Legos, Cadillac's plug-in hybrid, a tractor built for the apocalypse, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Most Emailed
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor:Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
lets inplant kinect into the bionic eye...
that would be fun ^^
---
bored? lets go mine the stars... ^^
Awesome first step. Now if someone could just take the point/distance data from a Kinect and feed it into a vest that outputs distance as pressure points on the chest, the blind wouldn't even need the robot dog. It's actually pretty darn simple, yet no one has done it.
Wait... Popsci, you just said some of the best tools were animals. Robot seeing eye dog's, real seeing eye dogs. Someone's losing ground here.
" Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Albert Einstein
I suppose a robotic electronic dog could never go bark,
but only go, ARC! ARC! ARC!
While this is a really cool piece of technology, I wonder if a blind person would actually want something that would bring so much attention to the fact that he/she is blind. Like the article says, this dog is loud, and because of it's size, it's hard to miss.
Its a good start and a good idea, the issue with a real dog is that is has no inbuilt navman, tends to get distracted by other animals sometimes (dogs are trained not to, but that doesn't stop another dog attacking your guidedog). It also has the advantage of not pooping all over the place!