Democrat & Chronicle: UR robot to strut its stuff

By Matthew Daneman
Democrat and Chronicle

(July 23, 2002) — Toting a food tray, the server came to a stop, stared at Tom Kollar's face and offered a snack. "Hello, my name is Mabel. Would you like an hors d'oeuvre?"
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Mabel's small, wheeled base is a robot itself, bought with some research grant money.
Atop that base are a variety of sensors, camera and microphone, a speaker so Mabel can talk back and a Webcam that keeps an eye on how much food is gone from the tray.
The robot is loaded with voice recognition and facial recognition programs. It will look around for what it thinks are people, focuses its camera and microphone on what it believes are faces, and offers food. If the face moves around, the camera will follow.
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