Senor Parrot's Perch

I saw this singing robot at Wired magazine. Watch the video and read the subtitles closely, since much of it is in Japanese. This is Cool Science! A robot diva programmed to mimic a human singer’s facial movements breathing patterns.

Japanese engineers have taken a different tack in their robotic development, working to make more lifelike robots that will integrate well into human society. To do this, they’ve followed some interesting learning curves. I liked how they use maps of mouth movement and even integrating breathing patterns into the robot’s speech.

Did you catch the reference to using hidden Markov technology to train the robot when to breath? What they are referring to is (more…)

Here’s some Cool Science News: Google has developed a self-driving robot car and has been testing it out. Right now, it requires a human in the driver seat to take control in an emergency, but think of the possibilities!

Parents, have a teen tethered to texting? Here you go! Have an idiot driver who takes the same commute you do every day who swerves around across three lanes, only in their lane on the average? (I’ve got one on my commute – honking has never changed his behavior.) This is just the think for them, too.

Here’s the story from SmartPlanet and the video:

Via ExtremeRobot, a star wars styled robot powered by a Legos NXT robot:

I suppose shaking around like that is at least something.

Robot Zot!

by Jon Scieszka

illustrated by David Shannon

Robot Zot! by Jon Scieska and David Shannon explodes with energy. Robot Zot has landed in the backyard and quickly invades the house where he destroys the toaster, an infomercial, and plenty of other things, and he rescues a toy telephone from a toddler, convinced she is captive queen. Everywhere he is followed by his faithful robot pet who looks something like a Spanish conquistador’s helmet.

Bravery is the key here. When our hero Zot faces the enemy, quaking and tempted to turn, he screws up his courage and shouts his battle cry, “Hero Zot–never fall. Hero Zot–conquers all!”

Jon Scieska has created pure boy material here, full of daring, high adventure, and zany mayhem. Then again, if your girl is the type who loves silly antics and great illustration, she’s covered here, as well.

Illustrator David Shannon completes this book with high energy and perfectly expressive illustrations. Its difficult to imagine a better collaboration between author and illustrator. Every pose and every view is perfect. Each kitchen counter appliance seems alive and menacing. The vacuum hose is a giant boa constrictor. The wide-eyed toddler the cruel captor. A dad lurks occasionally in the background, scratching his head at the devastation Robot Zot leaves in his wake.

I love Robot Zot!. Every reading seems to get better. It’s perfect for a bedtime read, take-along in the car, for pre-readers or kids headed for the second grade

Pink Tentacle has this post and video of a Japanese robot from the University of Tokyo that pitches with amazing accuracy. An updated version of a robot constructed first in 2003, this new model has super sensitive control of its fingers. The batter is a robot from MIT.

Robots are good for a lot of things, but this is about as good as it gets! I have discovered that someone has made a robot that can make your coffee for you. Now I love my daily grind, but if someone, or something, can grind and brew it for me, well, how can it get any better?Robot Living reported on this fabulous development from Japan.

I’m showing this to the rest of the family and hinting that it would be great for next year’s Father’s Day. I drink enough coffee, all by myself, that Ancora opened a shop around the corner just for me, their best customer.

I’m intrigued by the programming involved. I wonder if I could pull this off with a Lego Robot? Anybody know?

A while ago I decided to get a LEGO Mindstorms NXTrobot to build with my kids. I thought that, more than just a fun toy, building a robot would excite an interest in science and open a doorway to all sorts of explorations.

So far, I’ve been right on. Anticipating getting an actual robot was the first fun thing. And reading about all that robots was just like adding more caffeine to their coffee.

Our first stop was the local library. There we either checked out the books on the shelf, or special ordered interesting books from other branches. Our local library system in Madison had an excellent variety for a broad range of developmental abilities, ages, and experience.

Those written for the youngest children, ages 9 and down, were pretty much the same, addressing what a robot really is, how they are used, sensors and actuators, artificial intelligence and robotic learning,� and programming, albeit, at a very elementary level that even a small child could understand.

The books at this level were:

• It Could Still Be a Robot (Rookie Read-About Science) by Allan Fowler (ISBN 0516204319 – Very elementary, and suitable for reading even to my 5-year old
• Robots (Kaleidoscope:Technology) by Darcy Lockman (ISBN 0761410473) – for a bit older kids, first though 3rd grade, but good even as a starter for older kids as an introduction to what more mature books will cover. It presents a wide range of uses.
• Robotics (Life in the Future) by Mark Beyer – Like Robots, above, for kids 2nd through 4th grade, illustrating lots of uses and concepts.

These three formed a sort of a first wave, the most basic introduction. They were definitely worth reading and worked well to prime the pump, but they weren’t as deep as I needed to go for my older daughter.

For myself, these books gave me a foundation for asking my daughters questions to help guide their attention and thought, and to prepare them for understanding the technological challenges and pave the way for eventually designing their own robots. From this, I made a little list of questions to keep us all thinking about our goals in building robots.

Some time last summer I got the bug to build a robot. I wanted to get my oldest daughter, age 11, involved, too. Lots of things about robots appeal to me. They are very much the nexus for a lot of cool, current and emerging technology: (more…)

My daughter and I are planning on getting a lego robot and experimenting with it. Here is a video some teacher put together of her students working with them. This video is from TeacherTube, and I wish I knew more about it, other than this looks fun.

Just as the teacher/narrator says, there are lots of principles of math involved, most of which are not that advanced, even for young kids. This strikes me as a great way to increase interest in math, programming and engineering in school kids.