Thursday, August 19, 2004

My Dream Home Robot

technology



Two years ago, I had the desire to build a small flying "robot"
that I could control remotely and connect to an X10 home automation
setup. Turns out that I probably couldn't have done it at the size I
wanted, seeing how Seiko Epson has just produced it and it has the
smallest, lightest gyro sensor in the world. (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3579232.stm.)
Hell, I probably couldn't have done it no matter what, seeing how I've
never built a robot in my life! To be useful for what I wanted, it had
to be wirelessly remoteable and capable of sending images (either
static snap shots or live video). This little critter meets such
requirements.



This is especially cool to me, far more cool than wheeled robots. It
receives messages via bluetooth, and with its micro camera, you could
remote it through your house, checking things like ovens, toasters,
irons, etc. It can operate for 3 hours before running out of juice in
its on-board batteries (rechargeable?). I would imagine that once you
had a device like this plugged up to your home automation system, new
ideas for useage would crop up by the hundreds...


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