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The Little Robot That Could: My Warbot Experience.

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:28:01 -0700

Are you curious about the robot that Pablos and 3ric were designing in a recent video podcast? They completely redesigned it to make the "hackerbot." Their robot ended up looking like a spinning double sided axe. Inspired by their robot, and Rich's advice, I made my own robot. While most robots use titanium or airplane grade alluminum, I chose a different strategy to protect my robot. The googly eyes and a wireless transmitting video camera made it complete. Here's an image from the camera. This is my little robots POV and it's looking at a robot that is on it's way to come and tear my robot up. It was unable to get to the vulnerable parts of my robot, but it did manage to saw a slot through the foam all around my robot and shred the transmitting video camera. There were no hard feelings. When you put a robot in the cage, you have to expect that your going to home with what Pablos called, "a bag of shrapnel." With so much damage, I had to really work to keep my robot competitive. With red and black tape and a whole lot of lexan and some titanium donated by Rob Farrow, my robot changed from a pink eggbot into a lady bug. Make sure to watch the video all the way to the end to find out if my little robot really is the little robot that could! I had a lot of help on this project. Big thanks go out to Jennifer Rundle and Grendel for helping with camera operation while I was competing. All the great robot enthusiasts of Western Allied Robotics were super nice, helpful and encouraging. You can see more photos of the event here and here and here. The black and white polaroid photograph at the top of the article was taken by Billy Hatcher
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I Make Things Video Podcast: CNC Etchasketch

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:11:44 -0700

In between robot battles at Seattle Bot Battle IV, I got a chance to interview Scott Ferguson about his computer controlled CNC etchasketch. He can make his computer control the etchasketch. Scott usually makes robots that kill other robots, but took up the kinetic art challenge for the event. One of the things that impressed me is that Scott positioned the ~~servos~~ stepper motors so that he can use a big or a pocket etchasketch by just switching the pullies and changing the settings on his computer. He also wrote the program that controlls the Etcha Sketch.
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Tips and Tricks: Build Your Warbot For Destruction

Fri, 7 Apr 2006 00:22:26 -0700

While at Seattle's Dorkbot last night, I had the chance to get some advice about building a warbot from Rich. There's a warbot competition this Sunday, April 9th at the Seattle Centerhouse! Get your fighting robot ninja together and come on down to the Western Allied Robotics Competition for the action! (Or just come and watch!)
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Robot Vs. Cellphone - Weapons Testing with 3ric and Pablos

Thu, 6 Apr 2006 23:09:08 -0700

When Pablos and 3ric Johanson called me up and invited me to see their robot, I had no idea what they were on about or that this visit would be the demise of my slim cellphone. Working together like mad scientists, these guys are developing a warbot to destroy all other warbots at the Western Allied Robotics Seattle Bot Battles IV. This mechanized showdown is set to begin at high noon at Seattle Center in the shadow of Seattle's own space needle. Inspired by their ingenuity and robotic daring, I'm putting together my own "Reporter Warbot" to enter the ring and document the shards and shrapnel of robots struggling for dominance! I'll be flying a white flag and I've got the mobility part sorted out with a little xmods remote control car that I plan on putting some armor on. I need to figure out a mobile video recording solution so I can bring video back from the robot battlefield. If you have ideas for a good mobile video recording unit, drop me a note in the comments. Look forward to a video next week from the robot battlefield!
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Cell-Phone Catastrophe

Wed, 5 Apr 2006 06:48:57 -0700

So if you haven't noticed, this is my second video in two days. That's because I'm participating in Videoblogging Week 2006 and I have to make a movie every day for a week. In this video I explain how I killed my Nokia 7610 cell-phone. Then, like Doctor Frankenstein, I attempt to harness the power of electricity to bring my beloved phone back from the grave! Will the Nokia 7610 survive? Watch the video to find out! With my cellphone dead, I would have been completely useless if I had not installed ShoZu to my phone. ShoZu is a cellphone application that makes it super easy to post photos and videos to the internet. Besides getting media onto the internet in two clicks of a button, ShoZu also backed my contact list up to the internet and for that I am eternally grateful. In this video I am wearing the prototype I Make Things T-Shirt and you can buy your own with a smaller videocamera on it over at the I Make Things Store. videobloggingweek2006
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I Make Photos of Plastic Horses

Mon, 3 Apr 2006 23:48:14 -0700

Normally, I take videos that are interviews of people who make stuff. Today I'm turning the camera on myself and showing you one of the things that I make. I've been making photos of plastic horses for a while now and I've been printing them big lately. Each photo is actually four photos put together which is a bit of a trick. I did this so that I could make them big from 35mm negs and it turned out that I really like the way they are fragmented and whole at the same time. I took the photos on film and I print in a darkroom and put the paper through chemicals which is all very magical and wonderful to me even though it takes a long time. I'm selling these photos for the bargain price of $200 for the prints and another $25 for a frame because that's how much it costs. Drop me a note if you'd like to buy one!
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Ajay's Voice Controlled Car

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 22:25:30 -0800

My friend Cielito and I hung out in Ajay's car with voice controlled functionality. His speech recognition system is set it up with 4 mics, two of which capture his voice and the other two cancel noise interference. With the windows wide open in traffic, Ajay was able to boss around his media player to search and play specific music files and adjust the volume with voice commands that left his hands free to drive. My favorite part was when he tried to confuse his computer and the computer started asking clarifying questions! With a full-on snazzy computer in the trunk accessible through the 7-inch touchscreen, Ajay's project is just beginning. What other applications will he find for the voice controlled computer in his car?
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Musical Instrument Innovation and High Voltage Electricity

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:22:32 -0800

While in Austin for a weekend of SXSW adventures, I had the chance to hang out with Seven, who's a maker interested in exploring a wide variety of innovative projects. Recently he's been making musical instrument hybrids. While hanging out, Seven showed me a musical instrument he's made called "The Boar." The Boar is a bass guitar made out of a boat oar. Seven's also made another cool hybrid instrument a cool called "The Stump." Besides making instruments, Seven also has had a healthy obsession with high voltage electricity lately and recently he made a jacob's ladder in his kitchen!
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Photo Application: ShoZu

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 20:02:30 -0800

I first heard about ShoZu from Roland, Shozu's number one fan. Roland should know, he's shot thousands of photos with the cellphones he's had over the years. Once I downloaded Shozu, I was hooked too. Shozu makes it easy to upload photos to Flickr, Buzznet, Textamerica, and Webshots. If you shoot video on your phone you can set it up to email the video to your account over at Blip.tv or Buzznet where they'll transcode your movie into Flash and splash their logo all over it. Blip is really the way to go, but they have not added mp4 to their list of usable formats for email upload so if you've got a super snazzy phone like the Nokia N70, then Buzznet is your choice.. For now over at Blip, the video you send has to be 3gp. While at SXSW, i had a chance to hang out with Andy Tiller and we shot this interview on a Nokia N70 phone, and uploaded over the air with ShoZu. It's 352 x 288 pixels and 560 kbits/sec. The phone records at about 4 MB. Here's a link to the origional footage straight out of the phone. While shooting this video we explored Nokia's Director Application which has the capability to turn your photos into slide show movies. If you want to share any photos from your phone, ShoZu is the must-have application. As a bonus, ShoZu also syncs your contacts and downloads any comments you get on your photos. Cost: Free Sign up online at http://shozu.com.
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Getting "Chipped" - Interviews with RFID Pioneers.

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:44:42 -0800

RFID stands for Radio Frequency IDentification. I met up with a bunch of RFID innovators at the Seattle Dorkbot Gathering at the COCA art gallery. These folks are implanting RFID chips into their bodies and making cool projects that they can interface with. These RFID tags are tic-tac sized and are the same kind of thing that many pets have so that they can be identified if found. Flat versions can be found in library books too. In this video I interview Amal and Jennifer who have both been "chipped." You'll also see Phillip get injected with his own RFID tag. WARNING: It's a big needle and so this video is not for those who throw up or pass out at the sight of big needles. If you're interested in learning more about RFID, Amal's written a book, RFID Toys which is a must read for those interested in making some cool RFID projects.
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