David, are you still looking for ideas to add to your EZ-AI? I wonder if this may be of interest? Our Ai (and robots) can control home lighting, fountain pumps etc (via X10) and it can also control televisions, radio (anything that has an IR remote control), this can be seen in this video.

http://youtu.be/i-Tu4hiKdXg

Our Ai also every week downloads all the television programmes and their synopsis and this can be called up on screen. I can ask about any programme (its synopsis), when it is on and ask for it to remind me an hour before the programme starts. My Ai also knows what I like, so on a daily basis it recommends programmes that it thinks I may like. I am a Scifi fan so I get a lot of Scifi recommendations and lots of times I would have missed these shows without the Ai. The next cool thing for the EZ:1 and EZ:2 robots is if you have booked a reminder of a show then the robot will go to the TV room 10 minutes before the programme starts, turn on the television (if its off), then change to the correct channel and set the volume to your preference. Finally it will look for you to give the vocal reminder, assuming that you are not in the TV room!

Tony

Tony, I would be very interested. I am running out of ideas.

BTW, I am finishing up the cooking one today (baring any unforeseen issues). If you don't have something like this yet, let me know and I will pass along what I have done. BigOven has a pretty simple API. It would be worth looking into.

Keep the ideas coming. I want to build this out as far as I can. I am sure that as soon as the parts start coming in for the robot build, this programming effort will diminish greatly. After the InMoov is built though...

Again, thanks for the ideas. Keep em coming.

When you get further down the Inmmov build and you want to add lighting, appliance etc remote control to the robot, I will send over a code protected PIC that does all the work. You would have to use X10 for mains appliance control which seems to work well here in the UK, but others of the forum have said that they have problems in the US? Are you ok making up and soldering stripboard for these PIC circuits?

The TV/Radio control bit is just an IR emulator that learns the control function codes from the original remote controller and just repeats it when instructed by the PIC.

Tony

Soldering is no issue. I can even do SMC and have everything at the house to do it. I have built some SMC HAM radios before and enjoyed it quite a bit. As I get older, I use magnifying glasses to see what it is that I am soldering to the board, but other than that, I enjoy it quite a bit. I would be very pleased to include X10 into this AI. I want to automate the home anyway and what better way to do it than through a robot, right?

On the TV/Radio control, thats cool. I will probably add this in the future. It is something else that would just add more functionality and make the robot(s) that much more amazing.

Thanks so Much Tony.

David, that great that you be able to knock up the stripboard over there.

I now have a huge illuminating magnifying glass for my electronics work, many years of working with fine electronics and SMT have taken their toll!

Its very cool for a household robot to control lighting, appliances etc, even from just a security point of view where the robot detects movement in the middle of the night then brings that areas lighting on. If its me getting a glass of water then thats helpful, but burglars get a bit of a shock as our robots are also linked to the house burglar system. So if the robot is not happy with the situation (or detects an attack) then all lights internal and external come on together with alarm sirens!

My whole house is X10 controlled and it has worked perfectly for over 10 years now. But as I said earlier people say they have problems with it in the US. I could hack another more modern power line injection appliance control system, which I may need in the future to look at.

Tony

So, this is where I must make a paid for version and a free to use version. BigOven allows you to use their API, but doesn't allow you to get nutritional information about the recipes that you pull back unless you use the paid for version of their API. The nutritional information about a recipe includes the following information.

SingularYieldUnit TotalCalories TotalFat CaloriesFromFat TotalFatPct SatFat SatFatPct MonoFat PolyFat TransFat Cholesterol CholesterolPct Sodium SodiumPct Potassium PotassiumPct TotalCarbs TotalCarbsPct DietaryFiber DietaryFiberPct Sugar Protein ProteinPct

For those with dietary concerns (which includes everyone in my family now...) this information could be quite beneficial. The cost to me is a monthly fee of $200.00. If you want the ability to see this information about a recipe from EZ-AI, I would have to charge something. I dont know how I would go about doing that at this time, but I assume that I will come across more of these as I add more features. For right now, I am bypassing the Nutritional information and just populating everything with 0's.

Please let me know if you would be interested in being able to see this type of information if you are going to use EZ-AI. Once I know the numbers, I will be able to figure out how I would handle it.

The recipe module is completed. I am worn out and will post a video soon. I wont release this until later in the week when my parts come in. I want to test the GPS module that I bought to make sure it is a good fit and then put in more testing on the portions that use the GPS module. I am also waiting until I get this to add the current location features to the Emergency and Outdoor mapping module.

Who knows, I am pretty pumped up. I might record a video tonight. The recipe engine is pretty cool and it has room to grow with additional features to be added in the future like being able to search for a recipe that has a specific food item in it. I am still thinking about how I would implement that.

I couldn't resist. Here is a video of the recipe portion of EZ-AI. I think it's pretty cool. Now it I could just get it to cook for me...