At the workshop “Vocational training needs in social work for people with visual impairments” in Hanoi this morning, 11 October, there was a rather special guest: “Ms Robot” VIEbot, built by Vietnamese scientists.
VIEbot is a product of VIELINA (the Institute for Research on Electronics, Informatics and Automation, Ministry of Industry and Trade), researched and developed by the institute.
VIEbot is 1.70 m tall, female in gender, able to move around, and programmed to do advertising and communication work for the association of people with visual impairments. VIEbot’s appearance is expected to bring many innovations to social work for people with disabilities.
During their research, the scientists found that an advertising system would be able to identify viewers from identification information and give them information suited to them. If such an intelligent system could be developed into a humanoid robot, it could be many times more effective. So a team of 6 scientists researched and developed the system into a humanoid robot, funded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. VIEbot was created after 2 years of research and manufacture.
In the time ahead, the research team will expand its activities to bring a product with wide practical application to society. Among other things, the next product the team wants to build is a guiding cane that can see surrounding objects, identify objects and inform the user so they can avoid obstacles, and also has positioning ability so that people with disabilities can walk by themselves without needing a helper as they do now.
Duy Vu – http://ictnews.vn/