CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 21, 2011

Reefbot

Carnegie Mellon University: "The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium's Open Oceans tank is home to a vast array of sea life. At two-stories, it holds 100,000 gallons of salt water and 30 species.
Oh, and one submersible robot named CLEO.

6 comments:

kservice said...

This sounds truly innovative, utilizing interactive public spaces to gather data and do software testing. There must be dozens of other applications that can use such public interaction to refine software and data mine, just pick a place where a large amount of people gather and figure out the inherit interactive properties. A dumb example would be offering free wi-fi in popular areas but the logon requiring some type of interaction, but not as lame as answering a survey...

Nicole Addis said...

It's absolutely fascinating that they are able to test this technology in a public forum without focus groups or with their own team. The technology to identify fish through photographs is also a neat trick but I feel like the reefbot itself is nothing especially new or innovative. We've used these submarine-types for years to explore the deep sea. I wish the article went into more detail comparing and contrasting what we use today and what the reefbot is hoping to be and how it will change the field. The article said it was working on ways to avoid it getting stuck in all the small spaces it would need to crawl through which is of course of the biggest limitations of some of the oceanographer's camera subs. Perhaps they could get influence from the snake camera, which is used to slither through debris to search for survivors when a human can't. I don't think the technology is perfect, but it definitely could help influence how the reefbot could be designed.

David Feldsberg said...

I love that they are using the children to help get their 'research' done. Its not common that one sees a team of scientists that recognized the potential of the young minds. If only more researchers around the world would take the bait and tap into the minds of younglings aroun the planet.

David P said...

This kind of technology will undoubtedly come in handy in the future. The possibilities are practically endless. If this had been developed ten years ago, it could have been a great help in various aquatic disasters like the Oil Spill of the coat of Louisiana last year. The strides that we may be able to make in categorizing animals will no doubt be great!

Nic Marlton said...

The first thing that this brought to mind when i heard about the software was the screen in Gates which registers movement, and distorts the image along with the movement of those on the screen. this is obviously not the same thing, but the technology to watch and record data seems analogous. I wonder what application the Reefbot would ever have with theater. they seem fairly separate in their intentions, but as we move more and more towards automated theater, perhaps this technology has a place, much like many other unexpected technologies which find their way into theater.

Unknown said...

It's fascinating how people design this stuff, though I wouldn't say its anything remarkably innovative. The technology isn't new, its just the application of it. Though I have to say that it was witty of the team to create such device, it could prove very beneficial in keeping track of biodiversity in our oceans.