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

 

Videochat Robot: DIY Telepresence Robot

Intrepid engineer Johnny Lee Chung has struck again, this time creating a do-it-yourself telepresence robot for just $500. He explains his method and demonstrates the robot in the following video.


(Johnny Lee Chung's videochat robot)

There are two major components to the project: the iRobot Create which costs around $250 (incl. battery, charger, and USB serial cable) and the netbook which I got for around $250 as well. At $500, this is a pretty good deal considering many commerical ones go for several thousand dollars. The software was written in C# with Visual Studio Express 2010 and only tested on Windows 7 with the "Works on my machine" certifcation. =o) I'm sure there are TONs of problems with it, but the source is provided.

Fictional engineer Tony Rand created something very similar in Niven and Pournelle's 1980 novel Oath of Fealty:

That led to his development of robot probes; small devices with cameras and sound equipment which could move freely through Todos Santos under Rand's direct control. If he sent out two or three of the small tele-operated devices (he called them Arr-twos after the small droid in Star Wars), Rand could effectively be in several places at once...
(Read more about robot probes)

Be sure to check out these other DIY projects by the formidable Mr. Chung: Wiimote Head-Tracking Virtual Reality Display and the Wiimote-Based Multi-Touch Whiteboard.

Via Johnny Lee Chung's website Procrastineering.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/15/2011)

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 ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")

Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.

HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'

Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent, 1934.

Robots For Hire En Masse
'...small investors profited, too.' - Raymond E. Banks, 1956.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

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

Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail
'That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part.'

Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.

Rogue AI Replicated Itself
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'

HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'

Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'

When AI Takes Its First Breath
Any suggestions?

Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners
Daytime version.

The Morphing Wheel And The Smartwheel
'If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it.'

Transporting Antimatter
'...drawing plans for the magnetic tongs and bed plates and relays.'

Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus
'He wrote on it, using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger...'

I Wish This Plaudit Pin Was More Like A Wristpad
'Frank was cursing into his wristpad, switching between Arabic and English.'

World's Largest Teleoperated Arm
'...a pair so huge that Stevens could not conceive a use for it..'

Japan's AI Buddharoid Automonks
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'

MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'

The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'

California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.