Coke or water? (Image: SM/AIUE/Getty)
Editorial: The perils ahead for literate robots
A new breed of robot is using text-spotting software, dictionaries and internet access to learn to read anything, anywhere
INGMAR POSNER wants to develop robots that can see through walls. Not by equipping them with X-ray specs or specialised radar technology, but simply by teaching them to read.
“By reading a label on a closed door you can sometimes get a good idea of what can be found behind it,” says Posner, a roboticist at the University of Oxford. “Reading can help you detect things you cannot…
