Have a look at this cool video, call your robot using Skype and have it perform spoken commands while you remotely watch the results. I for one am very impressed!

Link

“Hot new video shows a Roboquad robot being controlled by voice, over the Internet with the help of Robodance and Skype’s video call service. The robot explores the house while beaming back audio and video to a laptop running only Skype. The laptop dials into the home computer which is running Robodance version 4, a free software program for making consumer robots do more then most people thought possible.

This mega-hack allows you to turn your Roboquad or other WowWee robot into your own remote controlled spy, accessible from anywhere in the world via the Internet, using the simple power of your voice. This hack does not void or affect the Roboquad’s warranty in any way. Robodance version 4 is due out at the end of November 2007.”

Thanks Robert

Check out this Youscope Oscilloscope Graphics Demo More impressive when you learn that a 15 year old made the demo!

“A demo using an oscilloscope to display something. It was third in assembly 2007 shortfilm compo, and won altparty’s most original entry prize.

The oscilloscope is connected to PC soundcard and is in X/Y-mode, with right channel connected to X and left to Y input.”

Via: Make

Funditor shows us how to make a DIY night vision system using a large flashlight, some colored plastic discs and an old digital camera. The result is an invisible spotlight that will allow you to see what the light is pointed at using the camera. High power IR LEDs could also be used but would cost a bit more.

If you like robotics and PIC microcontroller projects like I do this PIC Robot Centipede is sure to tickle your fancy. The project uses the cool Centipede Robot.

Video after the jump.

“I ordered a bunch of PIC programming materials at the start of summer break to learn more about embedded development and generally play around with them. For my first sizeable PIC project I decided to replace the brain on my Mechamo Gakken Centipede kit with a radio controlled PIC motor controller.

This mechanical kit is full of tiny fiddly pieces, but it still only took me about 4 hours to put together. It is very cool stock, but it is somewhat limited by the infrared controller (hence this project). I was inspired by this network rover put together by someone in Japan. I decided to make the motor control PIC based so I could more easily control it with a keyglove which is less practical than a network interface, but is intuitive, requires no computer, and looks science fiction-y. I also happened to have a 1-watt Luxeon LED flashlight, a WRT-54G with hacked client mode firmware, and a network camera laying around so they all got mounted onto the robot. ”

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The Jet Car looks like a cool futuristic car that you can buy today. Now if I only had an extra $100 thousand laying around…

Video after the jump.

“For sporty driver we also offer two Sport versions. You can choose between Jetcar Sport I with an engine power of 45 KW (62 PS) and the Jetcar Sport II with an engine power of 60 KW (82 PS). Both are driven by a 3-cylinder gasoline motor. The design of the internal space will communicate the experience of flying because of an expanded front shield as well as edgewise and backwardly extended side shields. In addition, the occupants are seated in spacious and ergonomically designed seats. All instruments are situated within the field of view of the driver, providing for optimal visual and sensory contact.”

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Doktor Andy has developed a method of using a cheap print server as a network controlled switch.

Video after the jump.

“One day it hit me. I wanted to connect my coffee-machine to the internet. and my television…and my desk light… There are different approaches. One of the most stupid ones was to stuff a relais-board into my pc and….greeaaat idea..absolutely….”sorry, I cannot cook coffee because I first have to reboot my computer….”

Thanks Andy

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I have a box of old hardware such as floppy drives, hard drives for projects just like this Floppy-Drive Solar Tracking Unit. Some people look at old hardware like this as trash, I see it as a goldmine of great parts.

“This is still pretty much a work-in-progress, but I did manage to create a successful heliostat (sun tracker) from the above TEAC model FD-235HF 3.5″ floppy drive. This procedure will likely work just fine, with a bit of adaptation, on any drive new enough to have CMOS logic on its chipset. This particular drive (probably a lot of others) only needs a single 5V DC supply. It has two boards, one with the stepper and main logic, and one with the spindle. The first is the only one needed, and it draws 0.1 Watt with the motor off, and 1 Watt with the motor running, so it should be easy enough to power with a cheapo hobbyist 5V solar cell if stand-alone operation is needed, perhaps a sub-watt one if a large capacitor is supplied to build up enough juice for a motor step over time.

A few nuances about this drive. The first is that when power is applied, the head auto-advances to one side. If the head assembly is removed, the motor will just keep spinning — it is necessary to interrupt a photoswitch under the head to get it to stop. The second is that if for some reason the spindle board is attached, the stepper will not run unless the button that runs the spindle motor is depressed. The third is that there is a software lock on movement in one direction — the stepper will stop after a certain number of steps, and if one wanted to get it to step further in that direction, one would have to step in the opposite direction once, and interrupt the photoswitch to reset the counter. I decided to leave the motor and head assembly intact and just work with the limited number of steps available so that I wouldn’t have to mess with all that. ”