Mac
Hello everyone,
I'm working on a robotic sculpture called "iRobot: Prick me, do I not bleed?" It's part of my series "The Classics" http://studio407.net/recent_work.htm
The robotics are pretty simple, the head/nook/face uses face tracking with the camera and servo and eventually I will have the torso swivel to face the viewer and I will implement speech.
But my issue is, seeing as it may end up in an art exhibition or two, I would like the sculpture to be autonomous. The "plan" was to have an android tablet installed in the support pedestal running a custom mobile app. But, am I understanding that the mobile app would be an adjunct to the PC running ARC and not the main processing unit? In other words, will I still need a laptop running windows and ARC communicating with the EZb v4 along with the app?
If this is the case, would, say, a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (i5 processor) have the ability to run EZ-Builder, be installed in the pedestal, and make the sculpture autonomous?
I have an "in" with Barnes and Noble (my wife is the store manager, lol) so I could get an extremely good price on Galaxy Tab S2 Nook which has an octocore processor but ARC for the PC won't run on the Android, true?
This is my first post. I love that DJ had the foresight and vision to take all the scattered C++, Arduino, and Processor code and package it in an easy to use graphical interface.
Many thanks,
-Mac
Later on as you gain more experience... you can really rock your projects by learning ez scripting.....
Okay DJ, I've done all that you outlined but in builder only. I mounted the camera to the servo (just a single servo for now, to move the head left and right) and it tracks colors and faces quite nicely.
So what you're saying is that the mobile Interface Builder reads from the ARC project that's currently open and adds the necessary controls? That's pretty darn cool.
I'll upload a vid of the project using the Arduino and a couple of ultrasonic sensors to track movement. It had problems that I couldn't iron out through code or hardware and I wanted to use a camera anyway, so here I am.
DJ, I'll figure this out, dude. It's Saturday and you're still young! Go party or something. I know I would if I could.
To answer your question about the ARC project on mobile: Yes. All mobile projects are created in ARC PC first. Then saved to the EZ-Cloud, and finally loaded on the mobile device.
Once you have it working on the PC, simply add a Mobile Interface to the project, add the camera, follow the steps above to save the project and voila!
Young at heart, maybe! I've been waist deep in regular expression parsing for EZ-Script over the last 48 hours. No rest until science fiction becomes our reality with robots mingling with society!
"Do you know NetFlix is going to to a reboot of the show in 2018? They already have most of the actors signed on. Can't wait. "
OMG OMG OMG! That's awesome! Is Billy Mumy involved? I know he'd been wanting to do this for a long time but Irwin Allen wouldn't hear of it. I thought the movie was pretty good for a cheasy scifi with very little horror. I was disappointed when they didn't make another.
But just for the record, Star Trek comes first. It has since I was something like 7 years old. After watching all 3 LIS seasons a couple of times, it was easy to work and not have to pay close attention to the screen. It also made me feel like I wasn't all alone while putting in the bazillion hours working on the car.
Last question of the night: I found the minimum system requirements for the PC (i5) but how about for a tablet? I know my quad-core PC (laptop) starts dropping frames after a few minutes of running the camera.
Update: I got the mobile app working. Unbeknownst to me, I had it all there the first time I tried. I just didn't upload it because I thought I didn't have the controls. So yes, verified, write the program in Builder, add the Mobile Interface with the same gizmos, upload to the cloud. And as DJ says; voila!
My current Nook tablet is a bit too slow but I think the octocore should do the trick.
I'll update sculpture progress as it happens. My big challenge right now is getting this spine cast so it sits flat on the table/pedestal, houses the servo without in moving off-center, and holding the cell phones nice and tight.
I'm also trying to decide if I want to mount the EZ-b v4 on the back of the head/face Nook with or without the white housing. I'm leaning towards without.
Thank everyone. Have a good weekend.
-Mac
Alan
@guru When I was a kid, I wanted to be a scientist (whatever that meant) but I couldn't do the math, lol. My early artwork used a lot of Van De Graaf generators and Whimshurst machines. It was....honestly, kind of bad. But it was fun to make
In ARC Camera Control, you can specify how many objects to detect, and there will be variables created for each object.
I've been meaning to submit an update and will in the next dew days. I was working and making progress and then Thanksgiving hit.
I have a "chicken or the egg" obstacle right now. I can't move forward without building the pedestal, which will house most of the connections. But I can't build it until I know what all will be connected (etc.) and I won't know that until I have the pedestal built. Lol. That's happened a lot with this sculpture. I'll build one this week. If it works, great. If not, I'll build another and use the first for a house display of some kind.
Just some process pics. One is just a test fit of the cell phones and spine. Still some tweaking to do but the phones fit better than I could have hoped.
The mold is silicone with a plaster mother mold to keep it rigid. I cast the spine with a two part resin with black dye. Usually silicone gives multiple chances to get the cast right but I tore it up pretty good getting it out of the motor housing area at the top.
Love your computer screen in the background in picture 3!