Hasta La Gadget!

Computers and sensors are quickly decreasing in cost and size, making it easier than ever before to build smart gadgets or robots. From accelerometers to thermal sensors, electronics nowadays can detect and record a variety of events and objects in their surroundings. Here’s one more sensor to add to your robot overlord-in-training. It’s called Pixy, a camera that identifies objects through color.

Pixy was made by Charmed Labs and embedded systems experts from Carnegie Mellon University. It’s actually the team’s fifth version of a smart and low-cost vision sensor, which they previously called the CMUcam. What separates the Pixy from other image sensors is that it only sends a small amount of data and it has its own microprocessor. These traits make it possible to integrate the Pixy even to microcontrollers like the Arduino.

Pixy identifies objects using “a hue-based color filtering algorithm”, which supposedly makes it consistent under different lighting conditions. It can also identify hundreds of objects at once. The image below is a screenshot of PixyMon, an open source debugging program for Pixy.

As you’ll see in the video below, Pixy can also track moving objects. That’s because it updates once every 20ms, fast enough to keep up with an object moving at 30mph. You can then gather Pixy’s data through UART serial, SPI, I2C, digital out, or analog out.

Pixy can be taught to “remember” up to seven different objects, but you can expand its memory by using color codes. Color codes are simply stickers or strips of paper with two or more different colors. Color codes increase Pixy’s color-coded encyclopedia from seven to several thousands.

Pledge at least $59 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Pixy and an Arduino cable as a reward.

What will you build with Pixy? A security camera that texts you when your cat goes out? A color-seeking water bomb? A clown-loving machine? A drone that follows you around? A box of crayons that can tell you what color you picked? A weapon that works only on people wearing red? A LEGO sorter that can tell you which pieces are missing from your collection? A camera that automatically takes pictures of the sunset? A wearable assistant for colorblind people? A ticker that counts which Premier League referee hands out the most yellow cards? A useless machine that won’t turn itself off if you’re wearing the right color? Are the things I’m saying even possible?

Right now, you can say that 100% of the bodyguards that heads of state as well as celebrities and anyone who deem themselves to be important enough to be protected, tend to be human, as I have yet to see an alien lifeform play the role of a bodyguard. The thing is, a future where a robot would take the place of a human bodyguard does sound rather unnerving, and you might actually be witness to the start of the robotic apocalypse today – via Linda, the robot security guard.

Before you think that “Linda” is a female version of the T-800, it is actually a robot who would come in handy when it concerns security as well as elderly care home resources. Linda does not come cheap, however, where it costs a whopping £25,000 robot that resembles a human-sized chess pawn, and since robots do not get tired, nor do they have a union to fight for better working conditions and a pay raise, Linda does seem to be the ideal “person” to have around an elderly nursing home, as humans sometimes are too fatigued to realize that one of the home’s residents there need urgent medical attention. Would you like to see a “male” version of Linda being manufactured as well?

Linda The Security Robot original content from Ubergizmo.

All the little droids zipping around the Star Wars universe seemed sort of frantically aimless. Where were they going? These little robots look similar but their mission is clear. Follow the black circuits and turn untold scribbling into music.

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A new Silicon Valley startup known as WittyWorX has come up with an interesting new robot – not one for the military, and neither is it meant for some sort of heavy duty task, but rather, the IXI-Play is a green robot owl that was specially developed in order to interact with your little ones. In fact, it has been described to feature a “rich set of sensors and expression capabilities to support the playful interaction” with your kids. Sporting lifelike body movement and posture, animated eyes and sounds, the IXI-Play happens to be a decent performer when it comes to expressing its “emotions” during game play, assuming that robots are capable of “emotions” through its various algorithms in the first place. Kids have been touted to recognize and enjoy such interaction, which makes the IXI-Play feel as though it is a real life buddy that offers playful interaction. An early introduction to Furby, perhaps?

What are some of the little toy robots that you think your kids would love you for it should you have gotten it for them in the days (or months) ahead? Will a Furby be able to make the cut this year, or are they already targeting the possibility of dad or mom bringing home a PS4 or Xbox One?

WittyWorX And Their IXI-Play Green Robot Owl original content from Ubergizmo.

Most of us would think of robots to be unthinking individuals that run on logical programming (which is input by a human, of course), and artificial intelligence alone can only go so far. In fact, I don’t think that the day will come when an artificial intelligence system becomes self-aware and sentient, and even if that happens, will it actually claim that humanity is a threat unto itself, and it would want to “correct” the situation and enslave all of us humans, just like how the movies have always depicted? The e-David robot as well as RoboThespian have been seen to be a patron of the arts somewhat in the past, and this time around, we have the Vertwalker, autonomous wall-crawling robot which also doubles up as an artist.

It has been shaped in the form of the Roomba somewhat, although the main purpose of its existence is not to clean up after your mess, but rather, to create “artwork” (now, art is a very subjective topic, don’t you think so?). Make sure that the Vertwalker’s arm is equipped with the right kind of artistic tool, and it is good to go. This is the third-generation prototype, and we await with bated breath for the first robotic art superstar still.

Vertwalker The Robotic Artist original content from Ubergizmo.