Boston Globe Reports on Professor Tim Bickmore's Reasearch
Prof. Bickmore's research on museum tour guide was featured in an article by a Personal Tech columnist of the Boston Globe. The article describes Tinker, a robot created by Professor Bickmore, which is used as a tour guide at The Museum of Science.
When robots do a better job than we do
By Mark Baard
February 25, 2008
Your next museum tour guide might do a better job of remembering you and your name, and have a perkier attitude, than any carbon-based life form possibly can.
The Museum of Science this week is rolling out a 6-foot digital robot guide, Tinker, which uses a biometric identification system (a hand reader) and AI to recognize you and your conversations.
Tinker, created by Northeastern University computer science professor Timothy Bickmore, cannot follow you into the museum's space exhibits, however. While Tinker's got brains, she has no physical body. Instead, her 3D image is projected onto a 3- by 4-foot screen connected to two networked computers.
While Tinker is a meet-and-greet stationary projection, other robots with similar smarts are providing some college walking tours, and escorting nursing home patients to their doctors' appointments.
Some people fear that such robots will replace people in some jobs altogether. No doubt.
But robots are going to be better than humans at some jobs. I'd take a tireless robot (save the recharging time) over a snoozing security guard in my building, or at a nuclear power station, anytime.
And Tinker could get a job tomorrow, I'm sure, as a Wal-Mart or Home Depot greeter.