"Tweenbots" Test NYC Pedestrian-Robot Relations 197
MBCook recommends Kacie Kinzer's tweenbots page, which documents some of her experiments with small, anthropomorphized robots that need help. Kinzer is writing a thesis (at the Center for the Recently Possible) centered around investigating whether people in New York City will help a cute little robot to get where it's going. "Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal."
Good Grief (Score:5, Insightful)
Griefers [wikipedia.org] will love this toy.
Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
...that the bomb squad didn't show up [wikipedia.org]?
np: Radiohead - Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2) (Airbag / How Am I Driving?)
Re:Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
When tourists see it, they say, "New York City." and take pictures.
When natives see it, they say, "New York City." and move on.
Re:Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Funny)
There's a reason they're doing this in New York, and not Boston, there. Keep in mind that those things were in other major cites, and Boston is the only major city in the world to order evacuations over LED animated cartoon characters.
There's a reason that Boston isn't known for anything except baked beans and New York is a center for culture, art, music, and science.
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There's a reason that Boston isn't known for anything except baked beans and New York is a center for culture, art, music, and science.
Heh.
My home town is this year's European "Capital of Culture" (aka "Linz 09" [linz09.at])...
I still don't see how putting a ferris wheel on top of a parking garage [linz09.at] is very cultural, but maybe that's just me.
np: Herbert - Harmonise (Scale)
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Yeah - and the reason is that there's so much weird shit going on in New York at any given time, nobody will notice the tweenbots. Not to mention that New York is (in)famous for being the rudest city in the US. If a tweenbot can survive there, it can survive anywhere.
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Not to mention that New York is (in)famous for being the rudest city in the US. If a tweenbot can survive there, it can survive anywhere.
Not really true though [readersdigest.ca] :-p. From personal experience since I grew up in the city, still live here, but have traveled a lot - it's not really that we're rude, it's that jumbled as we are we're more "nosy" than most, combined with a brusqueness that outsiders interpret as rude.
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We Dutch are the rudest people in the world, so you can still learn a lot from us I think. In Amsterdam these little robots would be flattended or thrown in a canal in no time.
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We Dutch are the rudest people in the world, so you can still learn a lot from us I think. In Amsterdam these little robots would be flattended or thrown in a canal in no time.
Interesting, given that New York City was at one time called New Amsterdam [wikipedia.org] :)
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Idunno... there's still Jersey.
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I imagine if you did this stuff here in Omaha, you'd be arrested or fined for disturbing the peace.
Re:Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone born and raised in NYC (I didn't spend most of my days on the playground, though), I can say I'm not surprised in the least.
This city is as "business minded" and conservative as it is "artsy" and liberal. Quite frankly, there's so much shit going on in this city on any given day that things like this just don't seem like anything important.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I've managed to walk through the middle of a TV show or movie taping simply because I was walking to the subway, or how many unique pieces of art I've actually stepped on (because they were built into the sidewalk) - all of which were genius in their own right, and would be praised as such in any smaller city, but because of the overwhelming amount of stuff here, its artistic importance is significantly diminished.
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I once saw a girl walking a watermelon on a leash. and by walking, I mean draggin... on a leash, like it was a dog. She was about 25. Lots of people here do strange things for fun or art
Re:Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/059/f/1/freedom_by_harry666t.jpg
However, the only thing that actually keeps making my city less and less attractive to me, is that it's getting harder and harder for me to get lost in it. I just know it too good, and I like exploring new places, getting somewhat lost, turning a short, 3h walk into a "where am I and how the fuck do I get back home from here".
Re:Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Funny)
It must be fun to live there. In my city (Bydgoszcz, Poland), the most interesting random thing I recently saw happening on a street was a bunch of cats sitting together with pidgeons:
there's a joke in there about polish cats, but I can't quite figure it out.
Re:Anyone else surprised... (Score:5, Funny)
rot # cat is now facing a pigeon
dup
dup2 # there are now 5 pigeons
pounce # takes 5 pigeons and a cat on the stack, returns 4 pigeons
# saved in temporary variables with high velocities and an incremented cat
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The bad thing about Tweenbots... (Score:5, Funny)
Constantly text messaging other tweenbots.
Re:The bad thing about Tweenbots... (Score:4, Funny)
Tweenbots: easily the most annoying robot ever.
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Re:The bad thing about Tweenbots... (Score:4, Interesting)
Tweenbot: ask nice robot lady to upgrade module so i can write capital letters
I was just thinking how hilarious and interesting it would be to find out where they were planning to release one of these, and mug it during the test, and do a 30 second Indy pitstop to upgrade it with say, voice or something else before they could react, and scatter, and see what the coordinators thought of that...
A little turmabout, let THEM become the social experiment... :)
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Wouldn't that be Tweetbots? *shudder*
np: Herbert - We're In Love (Scale)
I am AWESOM-O (Score:2, Funny)
I am Paddle-to-the-Sea (Score:2, Insightful)
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Exactly! Loved the Holling C. Holling books.
Cute robot (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always wondered if I took a postcard, wrote someone's name and city to be delivered to, and gave it to a random person. Would it ever get there? I'm going to try it tonight.
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Re:Cute robot (Score:5, Interesting)
We sent a variety of unpackaged items to U.S. destinations, appropriately stamped for weight and size, as well as a few items packaged as noted. We sent items that loosely fit into the following general categories: valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, potentially suspicious, and disgusting.
It's tough to say what my personal favorite was, but I think the helium-filled balloon at least deserves special mention.
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> "I've always wondered if I took a postcard, wrote someone's name and city to be delivered to, and gave it to a random person. Would it ever get there?"
That experiement has already be done. Read about Milgram's "Small World Experiement." It's the experiement that originated the phrase "Six Degrees of Separation." Milgram did a rigours version of "write a name and city on a post card and ask a random person to help deliver it."
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Re:Cute robot (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry if you haven't realized this yet but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you are a crazy person ;)
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Re:Cute robot (Score:5, Interesting)
Uhm.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Uhm.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, life in general isn't entirely safe.
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I can't imagine this being entirely safe. What if someone points it where it rolls out into the middle of a busy intersection, and somebody slams on their brakes or swerves to avoid it, causing an accident or hitting a pedestrian?
By this logic, people should never take their children outdoors ever.
unsafe at any speed (Score:2)
I generally hope that no tweenbot perishes, for the sake
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Somehow I doubt they are going to be furiously scribbling in their notebook... "Subject lead the bot into traffic at which point a driver swerved and ran over a baby buggy. Then the mother of the baby pulled a gun and started shooting people at random in a fit of grief. Then the police came and were able
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That was the point, and exactly what she expected, but that's not what happened.
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A safe life is a boring life.
I don't sky dive or bungy jump, but I have noticed a trend to "make the world safe" that is sucking all the fun out of it. Kid's play grounds have nothing even remotely exicting in them any more. My kids were the last generation to get to slide down 20 meter slides, 4 meter fireman's poles, swings with wooden seats, any play ground exipment over 2 meters high.
The Apollo 1 deaths did not stop the Apollo mission. Space exploration is dangerous, deaths were expected. Now, the
Would it work elsewhere? (Score:5, Interesting)
In New York (some 20 years ago) I was surprised by how nice and helpful the people are in the street. If I just pulled out a map to have a look at it, people would stop and ask if they could help me.
I doubt these robots would survive and reach their destinations in Paris, for example. But it would be interesting to try. I may be wrong.
(I live neither in Paris nor in NY, and am neither French nor American)
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I think some of the helpfulness you run into in NYC is also partially due to people living here long enough to be lost themselves. I know for a fact that this city can be downright confusing and you can lose your sense of direction pretty easily - especially if you're coming up from the Subway.
Of course, that train of logic usually only applies to Manhattan island. Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx each tend to be their own different story.
But I think the truth is that most people in the world,
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I've been to NYC a few times and I find it amazing that people can get lost in Manhattan since its basically one huge grid. Did these people fail 6th grade geometry?
"I have to go two blocks West and then four blocks North! I'M LOST!"
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I've been to NYC a few times and I find it amazing that people can get lost in Manhattan since its basically one huge grid.
All the long time city dwellers I know who don't live/hang out in the village/downtown area get lost 'cause all the streets get names instead of numbers and it becomes one big mess. A lot of street names also change/streets disappear uptown. I get totally lost if I don't pay attention when getting out of a train station, 'cause without the subway signpost, I don't know if I'm going in the right direction 'til I hit the next street. East-West is worse for anyone who doesn't much wonder out of their neighborh
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The major problem is trying to traverse the city. Yes, you COULD walk from 57th to 42nd, but damn that's one hell of a walk.
So, you decide to take mass transit. Now, where is the subway station? Where does that train go? Why don't the trains follow the same grid pattern?
Just because Manhattan has a grid pattern doesn't mean that newcomers won't get lost.
Re:Would it work elsewhere? (Score:5, Funny)
If I had to guess, in Paris it would depend on the language the directions were written in:
English - it'd be damaged and tossed in the garbage
French - it'd arrive at its destination with a baguette, cigarette in its mouth, and have lipstick in interesting areas
German - it'd arrive along with a letter of French surrender
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I doubt these robots would survive and reach their destinations in Paris, for example. But it would be interesting to try. I may be wrong.
If you keep the request for directions in English, then everyone will understand but you can be damn sure it'll never reach its destination.
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From what I've heard, that's true. French people, by reputation, are incredibly intolerant of English speakers, particularly Americans. Americans are less bigoted towards the French than the French are towards Americans, from what I hear. Anyone have any anecdotes related to this?
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While Springfield Elementary is a public school -- technically making Groundskeeper Willie a government employee -- it's a bit of a stretch to say that "the government" invented that phrase.
Re:Would it work elsewhere? (Score:5, Interesting)
Both Parisians and New Yorkers get a bad rap. In my experience, as long as you accept a few cultural norms, the residents of both cities tend to be gracious and helpful.
Firstly, you've got to understand that people in a city as large and dense as New York are going to appear somewhat impersonal at times...otherwise you'd collapse from sensory overload. However, beneath this facade, Similarly, for whatever reason, time on the subway is considered "private time," and it's generally frowned upon to talk loudly or make eye contact with strangers, etc. Perhaps an anthropologist or sociologist could chime in and suggest why this might be?
New Yorkers, in my opinion, tend to be some of the most gracious and sympathetic city-dwellers I know of. Of course, traditions and dispositions tend to vary tremendously from borough to borough. I've been living in the south for the past few years, and have found "Southern Hospitality" to be largely a myth, apart from the initial friendly facade that people tend to put on -- at the very least, the northeast doesn't deserve the rap it gets from the rest of the country.
Paris is somewhat similar. Parisians have a reputation for being rude and unfriendly to outsiders. I've visited the city three times, and have never observed this to be the case. I only speak a tiny bit of French, though this seems to be greatly appreciated. I could imagine being treated rudely if I didn't know any of the language (and rightfully so).
In fact, there are very few cities I've visited that I've found to be outwardly oppressive.
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Any location where the person cannot escape and people are crowded together so that invading each others personal space is usually considered private. The classic example of this is elevator cars, where it's been observed that two people boarding can be having a conversation outside the car, stop it while they're in the car, and resume it as soon as they get off. Often they don't even realize that they're doing it.
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Similarly, for whatever reason, time on the subway is considered "private time," and it's generally frowned upon to talk loudly or make eye contact with strangers, etc.
Dunno, maybe 'cause I just want to get to where ever I'm going and therefore don't feel like dealing with anyone? (Most people I know sleep/study/read/pray on the train-it's often the only time they actually get to themselves) Or 'cause the last guy who talked to me on the subway tried to scam me out of 300 dollars?
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As someone who lives in a city even more crowded than NYC, the subway thing is the same as in an elevator. You are being forced into someone else's personal space and the polite thing to do is to violate it as little as possible.
NYC/NY/the Northeast gets bad rap (Score:3, Insightful)
New Yorkers, in my opinion, tend to be some of the most gracious and sympathetic city-dwellers I know of. Of course, traditions and dispositions tend to vary tremendously from borough to borough. I've been living in the south for the past few years, and have found "Southern Hospitality" to be largely a myth, apart from the initial friendly facade that people tend to put on -- at the very least, the northeast doesn't deserve the rap it gets from the rest of the country.
I agree, agree, agree!
It's not just the South, though; it's also the Midwest. It seems that the South and the Midwest have a very ill-deserved reputation as being hospitable places. They aren't.
I grew up in the Northeast (NY, PA) and truly, the level of "friendliness" compared to central VA, Iowa, Dakotas, and so on... it's off the charts.
Like you said, the initial friendliness is there, but just don't stay there if you're not originally from there. You will be an Outsider (even in a more urban area), becau
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Just out of curiosity, what exactly is a NE accent?
There are a few regional accents, though it seems as though the majority of us do sound pretty much the same, which is odd, considering that UK accents can vary wildly within just a few miles. Jersey, coastal Virginia, and Alaska* all sound pretty much the same to me.
There are a few pockets of people with absolutely ridiculous accents (Boston, Brooklyn, etc.), though these people are definitely the exception to the rule, even in the areas in which they liv
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Well, compared to the Midwest, the Northeast dialect is very "clipped". It's faster; words will sometimes run together. The approach to communication is also much more direct: even men will make more direct eye contact, talking about issues (instead of, say, the weather) is more common, and the people are generally more relational.
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Consider the possibility that as a north easterner, you may be giving or receiving inappropriate social cues when you are in the mid west or south.
Well yes, that's likely. People communicate much more directly in the NE, from my experience, and direct communication seems to often cause offense in the Midwest, even if it's something relatively trivial.
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I live in NYC (not a native) and it's true that New Yorkers are friendly-- I think in part due to the fact that so many of us aren't natives. I know that I'm inclined to be helpful when I see someone who needs directions and things because I know how tough it can be to get around when you aren't familiar with the city. Also, I think that so many people living in a relatively small area leaves you with the pretty distinct sense that, "We have to find a way to get along, or this is really going to suck for
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Or maybe they could have put it down in Washington and gotten it a stimulus.
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unbelievable (Score:4, Interesting)
Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the âoerightâ direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation.
I'd have lost that bet. Maybe I'm too cynical.
But the one example they showed was entirely within a city park. I can't imagine this working in the city, the odds of it getting ran over would have to approach 1:1 most other places.
I wonder if the sidewalk it was traveling down (to the south) had a physical barrier blocking it from going further south? (toward traffic) In that respect I would expect the locations were carefully chosen to minimize risk.
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It's a pretty fascinating result, isn't it? While these little cardboard 'bots can only operate in a relatively safe environment (they'd be easy to step on and claim it was an accident) it makes me wonder how complex a robot could be and still receive useful assistance.
Re:unbelievable (Score:4, Interesting)
I bet they are as basic as it gets, they probably bought one of those $19 radio shack remote control cars, you know the ones with a single button remote that makes it back up while turning the wheel, removed the shell, (or maybe not!) and put the cardboard top on it. Probably the biggest challenge was making sure the batteries would last the duration of the test. That one was what, 40-some minutes, that's a long time for a pair of C batteries.
I suppose they could have extended battery life by simply removing the receiver altogether since it was unnecessary.
I bet they would have gotten even better results by adding a push sensor bumper on the front, that when it hit something it would make a little pathetic squeak or something. That would add a whole new angle to the analysis and anthropomorphize it one step more by appealing more to the public's sense of pity. (or annoyance I suppose) Might do the same with a tilt sensor so it would also sound pathetic if it tipped over.
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I wonder if the sidewalk it was traveling down (to the south) had a physical barrier blocking it from going further south? (toward traffic)
From the photos and Google Maps, it looks like it's partially separated from the road by fenced trees and shrubbery, but there's wide gaps where the road is accessible. It seems the lil' fellow did nearly go on a journey of discovery into traffic at one point:
One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can't go that way, it's toward the road."
Re:unbelievable (Score:4, Interesting)
The pictures seems to be taken near NYU ( Broadway and Waverly and WSP ).
The words seems to indicates that these was entirely done at WSP.
Is there any evidence of the author trying tougher challenges like union square or handling traffic lights?
My super-secret sources tell me that this was the first in a series and that you can be notified of upcoming missions (and new bot designs) by sending a note to a super-secret email address [mailto].
steal it? (Score:2)
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My first reaction was actually that it was so adorable that I'd run it all the way to its destination.
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And my first reaction would be to set its flag on fire.
Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.
Re:steal it? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm obviously too easily manipulated by adorable tiny things. Oh, the cats are saying it's dinner time...
Re:steal it? (Score:5, Funny)
Showing weakness to the machines is the first step towards your annihilation. First they help the "adorable robot", and next thing you know they're equipping it with firearms, you know, for "self defense".
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My cynicism went the other way.
"What are they advertising?" was my first thought, then after I realised it was an experiment I moved on to "sooner or later someone will pervert this for advertising"
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Won't people steal this? I would if I saw a cute little robot on the street!
Perhaps she put a color printout of the goatse image on the underside of the robot, along with the text "PUT ME DOWN"? That would probably work pretty well as an anti-theft device.
Am I the only one (Score:3, Funny)
"In 1999 the average age of a Windows hacker was 19, in 2009 it's 9."
So what happens (Score:3, Funny)
...if you put a squeegee and a tin can in its claw?
12.7 Seconds (Score:4, Funny)
Oblig... (Score:5, Funny)
1. Make a sad-faced robot carrying a coin jar.
2. Give it a sign saying "Brother, can you spare a quarter so I can buy a new battery?"
3. ???
4. PROFIT!
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Doesn't really demonstrate much.... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's quite possible that the primary reason most of those people stopped to aid it was because of their fascination and the uniqueness of it. Had it not been something that stood out dramatically from the expected, I suspect it would have received little attention and even less help.
It likely demonstrates very little of a social nature at all.
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Not every single passerby in the video reacted to it, or reacted positively. Watch it again more carefully. You incorrectly filtered what you watched. Your description doesn't fit the actual event, thus your conclusion is inadequate to explain it.
The more "sophisticated" - the more HUMAN - a robot is, the less it would stand out from what the passersby expect, and the less likely they are to give it attention different from what they would to an actual human. What would be the response to a human making
Oddly this sounds like (Score:5, Funny)
any number of software releases. Thrown to the publics' mercy, unready for the real world, totally dependent on someone else's goodwill to succeed.
New Term (Score:4, Funny)
I predict a new term will raise to popularity from this: eRoadKill
The concept is flawed... (Score:4, Interesting)
4chan loves kittens. NYC may display helpful benevolence towards these little dudes, that shouldn't be taken to mean anything other than that as a whole NYC has a soft spot for cute small robots.
Cairo (Score:2)
I would love to see... (Score:2, Interesting)
I would love to see what would happen if he didn't draw a smiley face. If he drew a grumpy or mean face on the robot, would people direct it into traffic?
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Why do new comments on stories go to the bottom of the list?
Because your preferences are set that way. It's the default for new accounts and cowards such as yourself. Create an account and set it to display as you like.
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The stereotypical male solution you mention would likely not be able to successfully get from one location to another the way the tweenbots do. So by standards of success, her solution worked. Don't forget that.
Well, crap, I'm sorry. Why should we ever try to innovate anything when humans can do it just fine anyway? I really don't get this attitude. Why shouldn't we just be subsistence farmers, then? After all, the stereotypical male solution of establishing technology and building a society would not likely be able to free people from work, so why even bother?
I don't see any value in what Kinzer has done here, and I don't understand why you think her approach is a valid solution to robot navigation. How i
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First, Kinzer is doing this as an art project, not a robotics project as you would know if you read TFA. In any event, it is a legitimate solution in so far as reCAPTCHA is a solution to imperfect OCR. The comparison to subsistence farming isn't good. The key isn't that we solve something a certain way but that we get a solution to a problem. reCAPTCHA thus is a good solution.
Moreover, we are talking about stereotypes. Indeed the poster I was replying to was explicitly thinking in such terms. Obviously
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Men in computer science: robot vision, algorithms to avoid terrain and navigate obstacles, logic, highly advanced everything, etc.
Women in computer science: Doing the exact same thing.
Seriously, that's the kind of coding I'm doing/working with for a robotics project that requires all that stuff. (Though a lot of it has already been implemented in libraries like OpenCV and player and reinventing the wheel is kind of stupid, but yeah.)
This girl didn't need it for her (very cool social experiment) project, so she didn't go near it. Yeah, she worked with robots, but not in a comp sci/AI way. I don't see the flaw; would you tell a web prog
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I would expect them to all get stolen in 60 seconds.
You mean, Gone, right?
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In New York? The animals are hiding. They're edible. Robots aren't.