Semantic mapping is the task of providing a robot with a map of its environment beyond the open, navigable space of traditional Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms by attaching semantics to locations. The system presented in this work reads door placards to annotate the locations of offices. Whereas prior work on this system developed hand-crafted detectors, this system leverages YOLOv5 for sign detection and EAST for text recognition. Placards are localized by computing their pose from a point cloud in a RGB-D camera frame localized by a modified ORB-SLAM. Semantic mapping is accomplished in a post-processing step after robot exploration from video recording. System performance is reported in terms of the number of placards identified, the accuracy of their placement onto a SLAM map, the accuracy of the map built, and the correctness transcribed placard text.

Semantic mapping is the task of providing a robot with a map of its environment beyond the open, navigable space of traditional Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms by attaching semantics to locations. The system presented in this work reads door placards to annotate the locations of offices. Whereas prior work on this system developed hand-crafted detectors, this system leverages YOLOv2 for detection and a segmentation network for segmentation. Placards are localized by computing their pose from a homography computed from a segmented quadrilateral outline. This work also introduces an Interruptable Frontier Exploration algorithm, enabling the robot to explore its environment to construct its SLAM map while pausing to inspect placards observed during this process. This allows the robot to autonomously discover room placards without human intervention while speeding up significantly over previous autonomous exploration methods.

As protests continue both in the United States and the United Kingdom over police brutality and the death of George Floyd, an iPhone shortcut that allows users to quickly record interactions with law enforcement is becoming more popular. The tool, which was created in 2018, uses Apple's Shortcuts app. This allows users to trigger a series of actions based on a single word, similar to Routines with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. Saying "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over" will automatically activate the program, which pauses any music that could be playing, turns down the brightness on the phone screen, and puts the device on Do Not Disturb. It can also send a contact a text message, letting them know that you have been pulled over by the police as well as sending your exact location.