EZ-AI development is on hold right now, well kind of...
We are in the process of working with some services that will allow the capabilities of EZ-AI to be far better than what they currently are. These include Wolfram|Alpha and IBM BlueMix/Watson. Speech Recognition will be performed through Nuance Cloud services. Advanced vision features will be available through OpenCV. A quick search of these services will allow you to see the end goal of what we are doing. These will be in the Rafiki project which is the primary focus at this time for CochranRobotics. We will release a limited use version for free which will replace EZ-AI. All of the current features of the EZ-AI database will be available through the new version. All of the services provided by EZ-AI will be available through REST queries and exposed services. This will allow plugins to ARC to be able to use these services.
There has been a huge amount of changes to what is possible since I first started working on EZ-AI. This huge shift of improved technologies has made it necessary to rework EZ-AI so that it can continue to grow and mature.
We are also toying with the idea of allowing programmers to write their own business logic layer within Rafiki. This would allow a programmer to be able to use the core services of Rafiki/EZ-AI and write their own applications with the data that is returned. It will probably be a while before this is implemented, but it is something that we are trying to make happen.
I have probably said too much, but wanted to give you all a picture of what is happening and why EZ-AI isn't being worked on directly. We hope to have our new AI available around the end of the year. There are multiple developers working on this while I find come up with solutions to other problems that arise.
As far as Rafiki goes, the pods are functioning great and additional code/abilities are being added almost daily. The models for the pods are being tweaked to expose the HDMI and usb ports and network port to the outside of the case. This will allow someone to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor to the pod and use it as a computer if they would like. The Rafiki Bot is about 1/3 of the way printed. I am making modifications to the models as needed and reprinting some of the parts as needed. There will be 6 subsystems on this robot. 3 of these subsystems have been written and are ready to use. The other 3 subsystems cant be worked on until more of the Rafiki Bot has been printed. The 3 that are not complete are all very similar for motor control. I hope to have these ready in a couple of weeks. I should be able to show a demo of the Rafiki Bot in about a month, and then all of the robot programming starts. I will work on the charger base shortly after the robot has been completed and the pods are all working with all of their functionality.
One more thing on EZ-AI... As a part of this rewrite, you will just need to have Java installed on your computer to install and use EZ-AI. The days of the huge install will be behind us so it should make it far better in the long run. The other thing that this allows is robot platform independence. I will be working on modules in ARC to allow the features of EZ-AI to be accessible far more easily. This will probably not be worked on until December at the earliest.
Okay, going back to my robot cave. Have a great day all.
Thanks for the replies. I am leaning toward 2) the buyer download the STLs and print. What kind of printer size, and how many parts are needed ?
buyer gets a part list with and a recommendation for a supplier ? The unique parts would be in the kit.
Kit contain's the micro-controllers with the firmware loaded
I am not sure at this time.
As to the issue that I am dealing with... My son lost his mother yesterday. She wasn't married so all of the legalities are falling to him. He isn't equipped to handle this right now so I am helping him out.
I'm sorry to hear that Dave. I'm glad you are there to help him out. It can be a quagmire. I've had to deal with once with my fathers passing. My condolences to your son.
@David... sorry man... family first... My brother died 3 weeks ago from cancer... I kind of know how your son feels right now.... We're always here so no rush for anything except family....
@David, sorry to hear that David I've lost a couple people in the last year and a half myself is not fun it's part of life but it's hard my condolences to your son and your Family.
@David, sorry to hear about your son's loss, I recently lost my Dad. My condolences.
Thank you for the kind words and emails. I have passed them along. My hope is that I will be able to get back to work this weekend. I have my doubts as sleep isn't something that is happening a lot around here right now between this and early morning issues with work, but my hope is that things will be calming down by the weekend.
Relax and take a breather, get some rest, we'll all be here when you get back or if you need us.
Hey David.
Sorry to hear about your recent troubles and your sons loss (and to the others who have lost someone, especially Richard. Sorry to hear that dude). I think you should take a little time out and deal with family first, not forgetting your recent health scare. Just my humble opinion.
In regards to Rafiki, I think option 2 may be a better option for you for now. I would tend to go with option 1 for those of us who don't have printers, but option 2 will give you a good chance to get some third party beta testing done like has already been mentioned. The software/programming element of Rafiki and EZ-AI is a vital part of the project, and I think this needs more of your attention when you are ready. Those who are serious future buyers of the complete Rafiki kit, and who know you, I'm sure would be happy to wait a while. I certainly would be.
Anyway, just my 2 cents worth. Take it easy.