People do realize that many many modern products and services came out of
quote research quote from universities, right? Pretty much all medical
research is done at the university level. Pretty much all robotics
research, including autonomous navigation is done in universities. Much
of that technology gets migrated to private hands. That is why we have an
entire office, here at CMU, dedicated to technology transfer.
I will completely agree that many times, hype is put out there, and these
are student projects and they don't get very far. I was involved in
several projects doing currency identification and bar code reading using
cell phones, here at CMU working with students, long before you were able
to purchase LookTell. But those projects never got migrated out of the
research arena.
I will also point out that interior navigation has huge implications for
everyone, not just the blind. How great would it be for any person, to
walk into an unfamiliar mall and be able to have their phone show them
the way to a store. Or, walk into an airport and quickly see all the
shops available and then a guided map to one they select. That is just as
useful for a sighted person as a blind person. As long as they pitch
these kinds of projects as being quote for the blind quote, they will go
nowhere. Once they do it for everyone, it becomes much more possible
because you don't have the small community issue to deal with.
And, lastly, if you have bothered to read this far, Google is already
doing it. You can already get guided directions in a dozen airports, and
a whole bunch of casinos in Vegas, since they did all the mapping prior
to the Computer Electronics Show.
--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Senior Oracle Database Administrator
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: (412) 268-9081
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