The MERTZ speaking robot is a research study at MIT University involving the social interaction of robots. The MERTZ is an active vision head robot, designed for exploring scalable learning in a social context. MERTZ is designed to be placed in public places for long periods of time and continually interact with people. The intent is to have the robot slowly learn about various correlations of objects and people. The robot may even learn to correlate objects and people with frequently uttered phoneme sequences, differentiate among people and their interaction habits, and learn to dislike some people who tend to annoy the robot. This is a very harmless robot that is more humorous than anything. From what we see here, it appears to get confused easily. I’d love to greet it myself, it even displays human-like emotions.
I have not tried this myself because I live in an area where the FCC prohibits the use of an RF jammer. In addition it is even risky to have one in your possession, but since the theory of how this works is educational I’ll post a link to how an RF could be made using the Parallax Propeller Chip. The RF jammer shown in the link below is designed specifically for the Parallax Propeller microprocessor chip, and the Parallax components and parts. The cool thing about using the Parallax Propeller microprocessor chip is that the 8 cogs give you the potential to transmit 8 different frequencies at once off the same unit. Parallax makes a cool little frequency generator.
The instructions for how to make an RF jammer using the Parallax Propeller chip are very simple, they are so easy anyone can do it. But since this is for educational purposes only, do not try it yourself unless you are in an area where it is legal to do so.
Introducing “Robot Wrestling V2.3.0.1 Deathmatch”, “Round 1, Fight!” In a battle to see which robot can stay standing the longest, this little red robot seems to be taking first place! This cutthroat battle can only be won once all other bots have successfully been knocked down, literally. This little red robot is only in the lightweight division, but he is capable of knocking down a large robot twice his size, and he is very athletic too. He is constantly jumping and dodging and on the offensive ready to attack whenever his master desires. What a loyal robot, how could you ask for anything more? Did you see that bodyslam? That little red robot is pure perfection I tell you.
Now it’s time for you to make one of these robots with the Parallax Propeller microprocessor chip, if you decide to make one I will too, so we can battle! I’m serious about this. It would be awesome to make one of these with the Parallax Propeller chip. Probably wouldn’t be too expensive or difficult either. I looks like they used a RC radio controller to tell the little red robot where to go and what to do next. It look like the robots just have preset routines coded into the microprocessor and when certain button combinations are pressed, the robot will perform different moves. It looks simple, and it would almost be just like the fighting games for the PC or consoles but in real life instead! The Parallax Propeller chip is the way to go.
This is for those geeks who feel this game is impossible. Now there is a guitar hero robot designed just for playing Guitar Hero! It uses color sensing on the screen to detect when to press the buttons, and it uses solenoids like fingers to press the buttons on the actual Guitar Hero guitar. It’s fascinating to watch the robot while it gets a near perfect score every time! I’m sure if they work at it a little more they could perfect it to get a perfect score every time! Or you could try making a better one using the Parallax Propeller chip. There are photodiodes on the Parallax website for color sensing in the components section. A few of those and the solenoids just might do it, but you might even be able to use servos for testing purposes (assuming you can get them to push the buttons down all the way). Have fun, and soon you’ll be able to beat all your friends!
This will keep you entertained for a while, try turning a flashlight and a DVD Burner into a high power and handheld burning laser! Here’s how it’s done.
Look at that!, instant balloon popping skillz. We here at PropellerCode.com did a little research into this project and are thinking of uses for this simple laser. We are thinking of ways to connect it to some servos and controlling the beam remotely. It crossed our mind to mount it to an RC radio controlled car. We were even thinking about making it autonomous with the Parallax Propeller chip, but it may start a fire if your not careful, so that sounded like a bad idea. I do have to note here that the laser in a CD Burner will no work as well because it doesn’t put out the same amount of power as the DVD burning laser. The advantage to this flashlight design is that it is compact and easy to mount with some clamps or zip-ties. Well I hope you have fun with your new handheld burning laser!
For those of you like me, there is always a new invention coming to mind, but these ideas usually just end up on paper and stashed somewhere or forgotten. The ideal of rapid prototyping has been around for many years with very expensive machines that could easily cost 100,000 or 200,000 for basic models, but a few years ago there has been much smaller machines that are powder based verses liquid, that cost much less. Typically there is a laser that slowly solidifies a plastic liquid, or powder that fuses together, both of which were still very expensive. However, recent technology has brought rapid prototyping 3D printers to a more realistic level for consumers. The “Fab@Home” printer is the cheapest 3d printer available today. And not only that, you can build it yourself! There are even 3D Solidworks models available online for free. All you have to do is order the parts and send some of the parts to local machine shops to make the parts and then you have you very own personal 3d Printer!
There are different Fab@Home printer models. The different personal fabrication machines come in 2 different models, a single syringe tool or double syringe tools. Currently the Fab@Home printer is limited to printing gel like substances using only a syringe tool, but future models are expected to also fabricate metallic materials. I find it amazing, but the makers of the Fab@Home printer are confident that in the future you will even be able to fabricate your own batteries, using this similar rapid prototyping technology. But by “rapid prototyping” I mean the machine will do most of the work for you and you just plug things in and get a basic rough idea of what a full production model would look like. Typically rapid prototyping is still very slow relatively speaking. Even with the Fab@Home, it could take 8 hours or more to produce something. For the Fab@Home, most of that time is probably because it has to wait for previous layers to dry first. It looks like The Fab@Home creates a much messier finish than much more expensive models of rapid prototyping machines. Personally I think it needs a lot of improvement, but it looks very cool. I’m not sure I believe it yet, but they claim it’s possible in future versions to create a small robot that would walk out of the machine, and possibly self-replicating robots!
The Fab@Home website says the Model 1 design will cost you around $2300 USD before shipping. That includes all the hardware including a USB interface that you can purchase from various vendors they have already found for you. There are also places to buy pre-assembled models if you like. Just check out the link at the bottom.
Here’s a project you can try at home! This shows you how to create a high definition speaker for under a buck!
When watching How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck, you may think to yourself, “Hmm, I wonder if this works?” Haha, the answer is no. This is not the way to make a high definition speaker for under a buck. In fact, even if you did get a speaker to work for under a buck it wouldn’t be high definition. When marketers claim a speaker has “High-Def” they are mostly just trying to get you to buy their product. It’s an appeal to logic based on semi-false claims.
The way a speaker works is based off the basic principles of an electro magnet. You have to start with some form of a coil that will create an electromagnetic field to push or pull a speaker cone back and forth. All the cone does is push air and create vibrations by pushing and pulling at a certain frequency determined by the pulses generated by the music payer.
So in a nutshell, here is how something like a set of headphones works: The music player sends out pulses that flow into the electromagnetic coil, and the electrical pulses are turned into an electromagnetic field that pushes or pulls on either a big magnet or just something metal that is magnetic. The object pushed or pulled is connected to something big and flat but also lightweight that will push lost of air. The more air that can accurately be pushed at one time, the lower the frequency of bass can be produced.
However the lower the frequency and the larger the amount of air pushed the more power you need to make it work. Headphones usually don’t have much base because they can’t get enough power to produce sound. So if you want more bass and more volume you need an amplifier. The way you get what advertisers call “High-Def” is by creating a full range of sound over the whole sound spectrum, and also doing this by having a balanced volume over all the frequencies. The only way to do this is by having speakers of different sizes. Although there all “full-range speakers”, you still get better sound by having multiple sizes of speakers.
Why the speaker in the video doesn’t work:
1. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they used a paper plate to push air, but they didn’t have an electromagnetic coil to push the plate and air back and forth.
2. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they are hooking it straight into an iPod that won’t put out enough power (amps) for a speaker that size.
3. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they claimed you can get “High-Def” from the one speaker, but they are wrong, you need more than one.
4. In the video “How to Create a High-Def speaker for under a buck”, they used people’s ignorance to get them to make something and get confused and angry. They were all victims of a hoax. Congratulations.
But on the brighter side, they are ways to make a simple speaker out of a cup or a bowl that do work. And you can even make them for under a buck. Here is one design below, just make sure it has an electromagnetic coil for pushing and pulling air.
Here is a cool little device that might make you think twice next time you see something flying around you head. This little flying insect is an ornithopter, a machine that tries to mimic a flapping creature. Robot bugs have gone through a lot of recent development due to continually improving micro technology. These little insects weighs only 65 milligrams and have wings that beat as many as 120 times per second! The only downfall is that it still requires power cords to fly, but it’s amazing it even works at all!
Uses for this tiny flying robot bug will mostly include reconnaissance missions for military and law enforcement applications. DARPA currently has incentives for creating these little machines for military purposes. The advantage of being so small is that it could enter buildings and houses and fly through the rooms and be equipped with full micro surveillance technology.
Some individuals are worried that these robot bugs could possibly be used in an invasion of personal privacy and a possible threat to civil rights. If the government starts using these robot bugs to spy on political activists that could lead to problems. However, there is little information about spy technology so we will possibly never know for sure.
So far experts say the technology isn’t quite good enough to produce such devices that actually function at a usable level. Most likely our technology will be there shortly, so we’ll have to just wait and see what comes out of it. Hopefully these little robot insects will by restricted to military reconnaissance, which would be a revolutionary way to perform investigations without risking the lives of our military soldiers. Crawling robots for reconnaissance are getting better, but a flying machine would greatly increase speed and access comparatively.
This type of technology is commercially available on a larger scale at most hobby shops and toy stores that sell RC radio controlled toys by a company called WowWee, the creators of the Robosapien. The Dragonfly is an ornithopter, a machine that tries to mimic a flapping creature. The Dragonfly is the first radio controlled fluttering insect. It’s flying is far from perfect, but it’s amazing it works at all. The best part is they they are durable, the one I tried crashed many times and still worked. I can’t wait for the next generation model.
Here is an audio subwoofer that uses a new way of generating sound. This subwoofer uses a rotary design to spin at high speeds and generate very low sound frequencies at downwards of 5 hertz or lower. Frequencies of 5 Hz is almost unheard of from standard cone shaped woofers. A standard speaker design does not allow the freedom of fitting in small spaces either. This rotary speaker design uses the same effect that occurs on a propeller driven aircraft. The propeller blade’s tip generates sound as it spins in air and the sound frequency is controlled by the pitch and speed of the propeller blade. Although this particular design is patented, I would encourage you to experiment with various home grown design that would be fun to play with. Hooking propeller blades to high speed servos to rotate the blade pitch should give you the desired frequency you want as long as you program it correctly. The Parallax Propeller chip can be programmed to handle the audio controllers added. Your rotary speaker design will be able to produce sound frequency waves that could create the ultimate home theater system. Not only that, if you designed your own home system, you could make the ultimate home audio control system that would perfectly balance your audio in your home. Your home audio theater system can be completely designed and controlled with the Parallax Propeller chip. Maybe you could even make an audio set up that would automatically balance according to where you were sitting in your room. Now that would be the ultimate home theater system! Perfectly balanced sound at every frequency in the spectrum.
Asimo is Honda’s advanced step in creating a practical household robot that will be able to perform simple to complex tasks that are tedious for humans today. ASIMO stands for “Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility”. Asimo is a humanoid robot which was first introduced in 2000, and has since gone through many developments to get where the robot is today. Asimo is currently the most advanced bi-pedal humanoid robot in development. Here is a list of complex tasks that took Honda years of development. Asimo is able to climb stairs, grasp objects and carry trays, comprehend simple voice commands and recognize a familiar face, and avoid moving obstacles. Although these tasks seem simple, you have to remember that this robot is walking on 2 legs and that is not a simple task in itself. It takes little kids a bout 2 years to comprehend walking, and just think about how many times kids fall over while trying to learn to walk. Likewise, many robots fall down, including Asimo. However, new innovative technology has proven to be much more successful as these complex tasks. The new Asimo can even run at upwards of 4 miles per hour in straight or curved paths. There is a bright future for this cute little robot, and since most of the hardware has been sufficiently developed, it mostly up to the programmers to make Asimo much much smarter.
Here is one design below, just make sure it has an electromagnetic coil for pushing and pulling air.
