St. Petersburg experts are developing a robot that will be able to read lips and use sign language to help deaf people in supermarkets.
The work on the prototype is supported by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education in cooperation with developers from the Czech Republic. The robot will have the Russian-language gesture interface so that it will be able to communicate using sign language. The robot will recognize customer’s speech, help them find the way around and use shopping carts. The robot will also find use at banks and government service centers where it will consult customers, TASS news agency reports.
In addition, the robot will be able to read lips, which is especially useful in noisy environments. To that end, it will be fitted with a special 200 FPS video camera; the robot will then process video and sound, integrate and analyze data.