Lewis the Robot Photographer

Lewis is a (short) human-sized mobile robot that wanders through a space taking pictures of people. The robot alternates between detecting faces and adjusting the camera position to take well-composed photographs. Lewis creates a database of images and offers these pictures as keep-sakes.

A robot photographer has numerous advantages. One interesting observation indicates that people feel less self-conscious in front of a robot. After an initial period of fascination, they begin to ignore Lewis as a .photographer. and lose their perception of being captured in time. Essentially, Lewis. lack of humanity enables a photographic environment that captures people interacting more naturally.

This project is not an attempt to build a replacement for a human photographer. Rather, it is a demonstration of a complex interaction task in a real-world environment. This serves as a valuable platform for research that still remains accessible to the general public.

More about Lewis:
Finding Faces
Calculating Position
Photography and Composition
Path Planning and People Avoidance
Future Research and Development

Tehcnical Information
Sample Photographs (SIGGRAPH July 2002)
Additional Sample Photographs (CASW October 2002)
Media Links
Pictures of Lewis

Supported in part by NSF award 0196213 and NSF REU grant 0139576.