correct me if i’m wrong, but technology was supposed to make our lives easier, take care of us, make us dinner, raise our children, and, fulfill our every dream.
so what has technology done for you lately? nothing? well, my friend, today we have a hack that will change your life forever. today sammo sent us a link to jp brown’s amazing rubick’s cube solving robot.
the final task on my big list of things to do can finally be crossed off. life is good.
grover sat alone on the shelf, placid red smile stiched across his goofy blue face. his fabric eyed gaze never shifted.
he couldn’t see it coming.
when the knife pulled free from the back of his head, his polyester brains spilled to the floor. only a sad smile remained. had grover only been able to see his attacker, things may have been different.
grover the muppet — barely alive.
we can rebuild him. we have the technology.
the old palm pilot you have could also be used as the brains for a nifty little holonomic drive robot. the palm pilot robot kit was created several years ago by the carnegie mellon toy robots initiative. that would be the same research group that came up with the bow powered pogo stick.
The Palm makes a handy robot controller: it packs a lot of computational power in a small size, runs on batteries, and best of all, can display graphics and an interactive user interface. Our robot empowers a Palm to move about and sense the nearby environment.
speaking of palm hacks, sean russell sent me this link after reading the palm lcd display article. make sure to check that out as well if you are interested in dusting off your old palm device.
here is a great hack that stella sent to us. mark craig pulled off a really nice looking alarm clock robosapien mod using a couple pic-micros, an lcd panel, and a text-to-speech synthesizer. i don’t think he’s finished the breakfast-in-bed software yet, but i’ll keep my fingers crossed for an update. nicely done!
you might have a pocket pc, or can pick one up for under $100 on ebay, with that, along with a robosapien (usually under $100) you’ve got yourself a good hack project. the api (click the read link, bottom of the page) is so the pocket to communicate via ir to the robosapien. should be a lot of fun.
now this a hardcore hack, the robosapien sapavr modification adds a second microprocessor to take over control of the robot. this provides “higher brain functions”, non-volatile storage, a pc interface, a many other things. all the old features and many new features can be accessed from the existing robosapien remote control.
Continue reading “Turn Your Robosapien In To A Supersapien!”
the roomba virtual walls are what, in theory, will keep in the roomba away from places it shouldn’t go, like the fireplace. while roombas usually come with 2 units, wouldn’t it be better (and cheaper) to make your own? and maybe embed them in the wall?
Continue reading “Making Your Own Roomba “virtual Wall” Units”
