Kinect & Wiimote Hack Lets You Brush Your Cat Remotely!
An amazing Kinect and a Wiimote hack recently implemented by Taylor Veltrop who is fond of pets and a roboticist makes it possible to teleoperate his robot to groom his cat. This hack has been implemented by assembling a 21-inch tall robot, a few Wiimotes, a Kinect sensor bar, a treadmill and a head-mounted display. Nao which costs just $15000 plays the role of the robot and is controlled by a WiFi network connection and some complex software. From the configuration point of view which represents about a year’s work including expenses of several thousand dollars, devices include a treadmill which is used for moving the robot around; a head-mounted display (HMD) which lets him see through the robot’s eyes or a secondary camera; a Kinect sensor to track Veltrop’s body movements (turning, bending); and two Wiimotes (one for each of the robot’s hands). Future enhancements may include two-way audio which Veltrop is thinking of implementing using microphones and speakers.
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Image Credit: Engadget
Until now telepresence is the technology used in military so that the soldiers and their partners at home can bridge the pain felt due to the separation. It is also used in corporations in the form of telepresence tables and video link-ups so that decisions can be made faster and to decrease the number of face-to-face meetings which are expensive. Teleoperation is nothing but telepresence with a physical avatar and is getting increasingly important. To illustrate this, consider two real-world scenarios where teleoperation can work wonders. First, teleoperation could allow physical interaction over a distance between a soldier and a loved one at home rather than limiting the soldier just to an audio-video link. Second, teleoperation could play a big role in maintaining some level of intimacy if a businessman is away from his place to visit a foreign country. Those days are not far when every household would have a cheap and teleoperated robot which could be remotely logged.
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Image Credit: Engadget
Until now telepresence is the technology used in military so that the soldiers and their partners at home can bridge the pain felt due to the separation. It is also used in corporations in the form of telepresence tables and video link-ups so that decisions can be made faster and to decrease the number of face-to-face meetings which are expensive. Teleoperation is nothing but telepresence with a physical avatar and is getting increasingly important. To illustrate this, consider two real-world scenarios where teleoperation can work wonders. First, teleoperation could allow physical interaction over a distance between a soldier and a loved one at home rather than limiting the soldier just to an audio-video link. Second, teleoperation could play a big role in maintaining some level of intimacy if a businessman is away from his place to visit a foreign country. Those days are not far when every household would have a cheap and teleoperated robot which could be remotely logged.
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