Saturday afternoon robot cooking

posted Dec 5th 2009 3:00pm by Jakob Griffith
filed under: robots hacks

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]

Comments [13]

tagged: input, multi touch, robot, wii

13 Responses to Saturday afternoon robot cooking

babble says:

December 5, 2009 at 3:54 pm

It’s fucking awesome, but.. erm, that clicking / frying sound is annoying.

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sarsface says:

December 5, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Man, this could be turned into an awesome multiplayer game. Physical avatars firing digital shots at eachother.

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Jean-eudes says:

December 6, 2009 at 12:10 am

Is that… Plasma pong?

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MS3FGX says:

December 6, 2009 at 1:02 am

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?

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neorazz says:

December 6, 2009 at 6:20 am

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

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neorazz says:

December 6, 2009 at 6:20 am

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/video-obscura-digital-shows-off-cuelight-interactive-pool-tab/

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MS3FGX says:

December 6, 2009 at 1:42 pm

@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.

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Tim says:

December 6, 2009 at 2:03 pm

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.

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Chris Rojas says:

December 6, 2009 at 9:29 pm

As Tim said, yeah lots of the stuff that was mentioned is in the works.

I’m hoping we keep building this system up and keep all of the code open so other people can come up with their own games, arenas, robots etc.

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Brennen says:

December 6, 2009 at 9:51 pm

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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Mio Navman Spirit S300 says:

December 7, 2009 at 3:58 am

Wow this is really amazing, i loved this idea in fact. Any ways on Saturday people are in weekend mood and in that mood they don’t want the hassle of cooking food and clean up stuffs. This is really very much helpful.

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recep ivedik 3 izle says:

January 9, 2010 at 2:25 pm

this is a very nice blog thanks for sharing that kind of posts…i m gonna be follower of that blog…hope to see other posts…

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Amanda Styles says:

January 29, 2010 at 9:53 am

Though this is an old post, I’m glad I’ve found it and enjoyed the read. You have a very nice site by the way. Have a nice day ;)

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