Saturday Afternoon Robot Cooking

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3VstJSxZlc&feature=player_embedded%5D

What happens when you combine an IR tracking PS3 Eyetoy, and a high-resolution projector? If you answered multi-touch display, you’re on the right track. Add a Wii Nunchuck controlled robot, a pinch of Community Core Vision tracking software combined with Processing, and the piece de resistance, a modified Memo TUIO particle system and you get the mesmerizing video above.

Check out this combination of crazy robotics and more with SparkFun’s free robot hobby builders meet-up on Saturday.

[Thanks Anon]

13 thoughts on “Saturday Afternoon Robot Cooking

  1. I’m usually not one for experiments in “physical computing” or any of that sort of thing, but I have to admit that is pretty impressive.

    I agree with sarsface too, a logical evolution of this concept would be to have a two way interaction, where the digital effects could cause a change in the physical device. Like two tanks that could fire digital cannons, and each hit from a “shell” would hinder your ability to control the tank, until it stops moving and the game is over.

    You could of course do the same basic thing with two toy tanks and IR, but this system would let you create weapons that would be too difficult (or outright impossible) to create in the real world; like mines, shots that bounce, homing shots, etc, etc.

    Of course, if you read the page, this system is nowhere near that capable or complicated. It just tracks a single IR LED attached to the top of the vehicle and projects the visual effects onto those X,Y coordinates. Still, it is an interesting proof of concept.

    P.S.
    Seriously…WTF is that noise?

  2. how come no one nothiced that the jet engine is on the wrong end of the robot ? are the particles creating a gravity well sucking in the robot ?
    otherwise cool reminds me of the interactive pool table where they did the same but instead of robots just shined really bright infrared onto the shiny balls to track mulitpoint.
    seem there $30k system could easily be duplicated like so

  3. @neorazz

    I didn’t think it was supposed to be a thrust effect, I figured it was a blaster…thing. But now that you mention it, it does make more sense if that was supposed to be a jet blast.

    Though as I understand this system, it doesn’t even have the ability to determine object orientation, as it just picks up a single IR LED. It could make an assumption based on the direction of movement, but that would easily be confused by a vehicle going backwards.

  4. sarsface we are working on turning it into a game. Saturday we played some robosoccer (videos also on http://techdesktidbits.blogspot.com/ ) There will likely be an arena built around the screen. And at least 4 robots built for the game. We are discussing a tank type game, as well as expanding on the Robosoccer idea. All of the progress will be posted on http://techdesktidbits.blogspot.com/ and http://www.projectallusion.com/

    @neorazz orientation can be achieved by using 3 leds in a triangle formation. We have talked about this. But did not implement it in time for the RoboJoust.

  5. Yeah, after watching this unfold on Saturday, I’m definitely getting a robot kit this week. It’d be fun to develop a general-purpose arena model that could accommodate anything from soccer to basic combat.

    I really want to try for a version of Bolo…

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