[Promotion-technology] Robots To Help Blind People Shop:

Mon Apr 28 16:57:18 CDT 2008

Some of these robots may be cleverer than most of the "human" shopper
helpers I've worked with:).

"There are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen,
those to whom things happen, and those who don't even know that things
happened" lou gerstner

Zuhair T. Mahd
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Washington Department of Services For the Blind
Vancouver Office
2214 East 13th Street, Suite 208
Vancouver, WA 98661-4120
Tel:       +1-360-696-6212
Fax:      +1-360-690-4663

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-----Original Message-----
From: promotion-technology-bounces+zuhmahd=dsb.wa.gov at nfbnet.org
[mailto:promotion-technology-bounces+zuhmahd=dsb.wa.gov at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Robert Jaquiss
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 8:01 PM
To: Committee on the Promotion, Evaluation and Advancement of
Technology; nfb-rd at nfbcal.org; nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Promotion-technology] Robots To Help Blind People Shop:

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 at earthlink.net
Web site: http://www.viewinternational.org
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: <nfb-rd at nfbcal.org>; <promotion-technology at nfbnet.org>; 
<nfbcs at 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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