Japanese development company NSK has been working on a “robo-dog” designed to assist blind people with everyday tasks. The invention, which isn’t fully finished yet, will be able to act as a seeing-eye dog, because of a Microsoft Kinect image and distance sensor, which creates a 3-D visualization of the landscape head, to which the robo-dog reacts accordingly.
In the video below, watch the protoypte lead a blindfolded scientist/tech guy up and down a small flight of stairs.
As the Daily Mail details, The dog is controlled by pre-programming the software and by putting pressure on the hand grips. The robot responds to instruction by letting the user know what is going on with a synthetic female voice. Future versions of the robotic dog will include voice commands and GPS for more accurate directions.
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