Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
White Box Robotics 912 - Hackable Home Robot
Although I confess that I am fascinated by robot lawnmowers (somebody up the block from me has one) and robot vacuum cleaners (I have friends who say a dog is better autonomous unit for cleaning up food particles), I haven't really been moved to buy one.
The White Box Robotics 912 family of so-called pc-bots is a different story. The 912 unit is basically a robotics platform; it runs on a Windows operating system and can use off-the-shelf components.
(From White Box Robotics 912 "MP3")
The 912 comes with a Windows-based application to control the robot. It is a GUI-based application that provides vision-based navigation, object recognition, speech recognition, speech synthesis and other features. The company shows several versions so you can see what is possible. The 912 "MP3" version features a DVD-ROM device with a 5.5 inch screen on the back of the robot for playing games or watching movies. You can tell the robot to play mp3's, or burn them to a disk to give to friends. The 912 "HMV" version shows its tough-guy side as a sentry-duty robot.
The 912 is not functional out of the box; it is up to the hobbyist to add their own parts and customize it. To me, this is one of the most interesting features; it reminds me of when microcomputers were new and customizable. It really was up to you to decide what it was good at, and then make it work.
(From White Box Robotics 912 "HMV")
In the opinion of this reviewer (neat site, by the way), the White Box Robotics 912 is a best bet for being a real-life R2D2, the iconic Star Wars robot. As you may recall, R2D2 is an all-purpose kind of robot - like the 912.
(R2D2 on patrol)
For example, R2D2 shows Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi a hologram of Princess Leia, demonstrating his multimedia features. The 912 also comes in a multimedia version; it can play back MP3s on voice command. Which is better than R2 can do, if you will recall C3PO's frustration with R2 when R2D2 refused to play the hologram for Luke alone.
Also, R2D2 has an extendable sensor arm that can be used for a wide variety of tasks. The White Box Robotics has nothing like this built-in, but since you can customize it as you please, it shouldn't be an insurmountable problem. A higher-end robot, the European Space Agency's Beagle 2, comes equipped with an extendable arm with a cluster of sensors. Beagle 2, regrettably, is not yet available to basement hobbyists. But the White Box Robotics 912 will be available commercially this year.
What would you do with your own customizable robot? Leave your ideas below.
(Beagle 2)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/27/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 25 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.' - Rog Philips, 1950.
Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing Runs With His G1 Robot Army
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
AI Operates An Excavator
'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.'
US Army IBEX Exoskeleton Walks Troops Out Of Danger
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'
Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'
Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'
Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.
'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'
Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
