Whittaker said in the past 10 years alone, much has been learned about the evolution and demise of the dinosaurs, but the experience of museum visitors has remained the same as it has been for more than a century.
The 'Sage' robot consists of a standard platform, a product of Nomadic Technologies, Inc., (Mountain View, Calif.) that has been customized and given capabilities to navigate safely, act autonomously, avoid obstacles and thank people when they get out of its way. It can also navigate with enough accuracy to plug itself into a dock and recharge its batteries.
A multimedia system installed inside the robot plays clips of a movie developed by the museum's Exhibits and Education departments. 'Sage' will lead tours by stopping at various exhibits controlled by the navigation system. When it stops, and visitors press the correct button, it will play an appropriate movie clip accompanied by sound. When visitors press a button under the video display, it will also give closed captions on the movie screen so that those who are hearing impaired can enjoy the tour as well.
Initially, 'Sage' will have a set dialogue. Speech recognition capabilities will be added at a later date, along with the ability to trigger projections on visual displays in the hall and interact with a new computer-controlled lighting system the museum is installing. Other planned upgrades will allow Web browsers to interact with 'Sage' and show behind-the-scenes activities at the museum.
RedZone plans to continue technology development of 'Sage' through the
summer, leading to a second-generation robot that will debut at the museum in
the fall. The company plans to ad
'"/>
Contact: Anne Watzman
aw16@andrew.cmu.edu
412-268-3830
Carnegie Mellon University
26-May-1998