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My question is how much will it cost when you add a box, keyboard, monitor, etc.... might make as much sense to buy one of those $100 laptops being distributed in several countries ...
What I want to do is put it on top of a motorised lego car and attach a web-cam to it. Then leave it sitting the middle of my house.
Then, I want to log on from anywhere, and see my little car webcam. And click a few arrows and have it drive around my house broadcasting me a video feed from inside my house.
And you know... All I've got to do then is attach a little screen and speaker to the front of the car and broadcast my face and voice, and I'll have a virtual version of me that I can move around my house from anywhere in the world.
I'll never have to go home again. Daddy can work late every night.
In fact, this is great... attach a robot arm on top of that and I can even feed the cat remotely. (Although, it might freak the cat out when he sees me approaching as a disembodied head attached to a lego-car, trying to reassure him with my robot arm)
What I want to do is put it on top of a motorised lego car and attach a web-cam to it. Then leave it sitting the middle of my house.
Then, I want to log on from anywhere, and see my little car webcam. And click a few arrows and have it drive around my house broadcasting me a video feed from inside my house.
And you know... All I've got to do then is attach a little screen and speaker to the front of the car and broadcast my face and voice, and I'll have a virtual version of me that I can move around my house from anywhere in the world.
I'll never have to go home again. Daddy can work late every night.
In fact, this is great... attach a robot arm on top of that and I can even feed the cat remotely. (Although, it might freak the cat out when he sees me approaching as a disembodied head attached to a lego-car, trying to reassure him with my robot arm)
What I want to do is put it on top of a motorised lego car and attach a web-cam to it. Then leave it sitting the middle of my house.
Then, I want to log on from anywhere, and see my little car webcam. And click a few arrows and have it drive around my house broadcasting me a video feed from inside my house.
And you know... All I've got to do then is attach a little screen and speaker to the front of the car and broadcast my face and voice, and I'll have a virtual version of me that I can move around my house from anywhere in the world.
I'll never have to go home again. Daddy can work late every night.
In fact, this is great... attach a robot arm on top of that and I can even feed the cat remotely. (Although, it might freak the cat out when he sees me approaching as a disembodied head attached to a lego-car, trying to reassure him with my robot arm)
power?
I suggest laptop battery (or four), and create a litte docking port with sprung contacts you can reverse the car into when not in use.
Yes, I've been thinking about that. I'm looking at how my robot vacuum cleaner does it. It's got a rechargeable battery and when it detects the charge is low, it finds its way home to the docking station (using an infra-red beam) clever stuff.
You could use this in conjunction with a system of 'retracing steps' back to the docking station.
You could use this in conjunction with a system of 'retracing steps' back to the docking station.
If you "retrace steps" you'll need it to turn around and head for the recharger when it still has half a charge left.
Why not add a GPS locator and have it take the shortest route back to the docking station? You might also have it use a "dead-reckoning" system to locate itself so it can calculate distance and direction.
And you might look into that magnetic plug thing Apple has on laptops or those new cell phone charging stations so you just need it to make contact to recharge, rather than having to actually engage a prong/socket system.
You could use this in conjunction with a system of 'retracing steps' back to the docking station.
If you "retrace steps" you'll need it to turn around and head for the recharger when it still has half a charge left.
Why not add a GPS locator and have it take the shortest route back to the docking station? You might also have it use a "dead-reckoning" system to locate itself so it can calculate distance and direction.
And you might look into that magnetic plug thing Apple has on laptops or those new cell phone charging stations so you just need it to make contact to recharge, rather than having to actually engage a prong/socket system.
GPS on the best day gives 3m accuracy, which is not even close to good enough. In a building...it gets worse.
You could use this in conjunction with a system of 'retracing steps' back to the docking station.
If you "retrace steps" you'll need it to turn around and head for the recharger when it still has half a charge left.
I was thinking running an 'as the crow flies' algorithm against the outward route to calculate the straight line route back to the recharger. That way it's not just replaying every single step in reverse.
Also, I only need to get it close enough to the charger so it'll see the infra-red beam, as soon as it sees that then the 'home-in' piece comes into play, and it positions itself close enough that the magnet can engage the charger prongs (similar to my robot vacuum, I love that thing!)
I was thinking running an 'as the crow flies' algorithm against the outward route to calculate the straight line route back to the recharger. That way it's not just replaying every single step in reverse.
Yes -- that's what I was thinking with the second suggestion of a "dead-reconing" locator calculation ... I look forward to seeing video.
BTW: you mentioned using a Lego car -- can you do something similar using Lego's own Mindstorms programmable system?
I was thinking running an 'as the crow flies' algorithm against the outward route to calculate the straight line route back to the recharger. That way it's not just replaying every single step in reverse.
Yes -- that's what I was thinking with the second suggestion of a "dead-reconing" locator calculation ... I look forward to seeing video.
BTW: you mentioned using a Lego car -- can you do something similar using Lego's own Mindstorms programmable system?
Yeah, the thought occurred to me. My son was at a Lego workshop a couple of weeks ago, they were using Lego stepper motors and sensors connected to a laptop via USB, and a simple graphical programming language, similar to 'Scratch' - I'm not sure if that's Mindstorms or part of the 'Lego for Education' thing.
Although Mindstorms coding would make it easier to control the Lego motors and sensors, I'd probably need to code for the wifi and webcam piece (and route-finding) separately. It'd be easier to have all the code in one place like Python, and then use an API to control the motors.
I'm still throwing ideas around - I should probably think about patenting my "disembodied human cat-feeding (and comforting) device"
