Ooo! More robot kit fun! I like it except that I feel very poor when I look at it. I guess robot kits will do that to you, it’s like looking at the prices of LEGOs.
[via robots.net ]
Category: Computers
DIY Homebrew Gold, the GP2X
Now this is a company that has an eye on the adventuresome consumer. This hand held game platform was released by the Korean company GamePark Holdings a few months ago and caught my attention because if you want you can download the programming development software for it. yep, that’s right. This company expects you pop the covers off and see how it ticks. The unit has a Linux core and runs Mplayer so it likes happy media flavors like OGM, DivX, XviD, JPG, and MP3. Plus you can also find emulators that will run the 8-bit games that the kids like so much today (NES, GB, Sega…). If there was a way to add a hard drive to it this would be the king of hacker toys. Mumm… can you add a thumb drive on the USB 2.0 port? Anyway, if I find one of these I’m going to get it, not because I like Mario Golf and Tetris or that I want to have a photo gallery or even an eBook reader, I want a device that is made by a company that realizes that the people that buy their products aren’t dumb end users. To me a customer shouldn’t be given the idea that the item in their hands has only one single use and if you try to do anything else with it you get a lawyer thrown at your head.
Robot Magazine On the Stands
I’ve been reading through the premiere issue of ‘Robot Magazine’ and have nothing but good things to say about it. Anyone that has an interest in the growing area of hobby robotics needs to read this publication. No matter if you have a LEGO Mindstorm kit and want to get some ideas, a new VEX robotics system, or are building a ‘Robo One‘ classed robot there is going to be something in this for you. The lead story of how the Mythbusters built their own PackBot out of the new VEX Robot System is a great read. First class stuff!
King Pong!
More Pong goodness! The German group, ‘chaos computer club‘ wired up lights in all the windows of an eight story building and interfaced it to a computer that can be controlled via cell phone. What you get is a massive video arcade that anyone with a cell phone can call into and play. Just amazing what time and know-how can do isn’t it?
Robot Football With Mr. Soccer
What could be more fun than robot football, er.. I mean soccer? Each of your little robotic (remote controlled, but some hacking can give them the gift of autonomy) is about two inches high and run off from two AAA batteries. The starter pack comes with two robots (England and Brazil) but you can have up to seven on a side. I can imagine that having 14 robots on a playing field is going to require some unique markings added to your robot, good thing it comes with a sheet of stickers. I’m hoping that these end up being sold here in the states, with such a low cost (apx $56US for the base kit and $25US for each extra robot) these could be bought in a large quantity and used in a robotics lab as the basis of some swarm bots.
Plastic Active-Matrix SVGA Flexible e-Paper Display
I can hardly wait to see one of these in person.