Be back soon

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Saturday, June 21st, 2008

^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D

^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D ^_^ =D

See ya later to all of the people that read this! A big thanks to everyone that helped donate over $1000! It helped a lot. The rest of the costs were covered by a reserved education savings account thing. This is going to be amazing! And I’m going to the JPL! Feel free to email me when I’m gone! I’m not sure if I will reply, but if I do it will be from RobotGrrl ~at~:) rocketmail.com.

I hope to come back with many project ideas and a better outlook on AI (artificial intelligence) for NLP (natural language processing), CV (computer vision), and HCI (human-computer interaction)! I’d want to explore it with Arduino, too.

In 3.5 weeks, get ready for lots of blog posts! Funnily enough, this blog post is #666. xD

Posted in: News, Projects, Robot, Robot News, School.

Changing/Putting in the Battery

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Incase the Styrobot’s battery fell out when it was shipped, or if you already used it up, I came up with two pics here that illustrate where to put the battery. Basically there are three rows of pins, top, middle and bottom. The battery goes between the top pins and the middle pins. BUT the top pins have to be covered with tape or not touching the battery. The wire from the motor has to be touching the battery, too. Don’t worry about the polarity as it’s only a tiny DC motor… and it won’t matter much in a Styrobot. =D

Hope this helps everyone!

Posted in: Projects, Robot.

I

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Wall-E is probably the CUTEST robot ever. (Except for my Styrobots, of course!) The way he says his name ‘WwwwaaallLL Eee’ is irresistible.

I see Wall-E everywhere. And, much to my joy one day… I looked out the back window, and I saw Wall-E! This means that at least once per day, I get to see Wall-E! WOOT!

*note: pics taken a long time ago

I really can’t wait until this movie comes out!! Imagine how cool Epcot will be, too. Meet the Robinsons + Wall-E!! It’s quite crazy how Pixar is just doing better and better with each animation they make. I really never thought that anything would be better than Finding Nemo, ever.

One of the things I can’t wait for is the robot! Er well, I can’t wait for me to gently tear apart the robot and hack it OR make it run on an Arduino! How cool would that be?! Having a Wall-E working off of an Arduino, connected to Processing. I could have all sorts of ultrasonic sensors… personalize it… make a conversational program (based off of Robbie the Robot) for it… WOOT!

Check out these two videos – they’re REALLY cool!

Wall-E ROCKS!

Posted in: News, Projects, Robot, Robot News.

Inching closer and closer!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

The day until I start this awesome adventure is getting closer! I’m flying out on June 22nd morning, and I’ll get there on June 22nd morning! That’s so cool! It’s almost like time warping, except … it isn’t xD

One of the major things that is bugging me is my camera (right now I have the Canon Powershot SD550). I got it a few years ago, so it’s a bit out of date. The Image Stabilization is old, and it’s not as good as it could be. I really want a new camera! I have my heart set on the Canon Powershot SD1100IS. It uses the DiGIC 3 processor! That means I could have it on a higher ISO level, and it wouldn’t be as grainy as on my camera now. Plus, the faces will be in focus! I can never get faces in focus with my camera now. In fact, to take a good photo I have to take at least 10 shots on continuous mode so that it will be in focus, comparable to a DSLR shot, almost. Furthermore, I think I will only have two 2GB cards. Errg! I don’t know how I’m going to do it. Maybe I’ll optimize my settings so that the images will be web quality, but definitely not stellar quality.

Either way, it’s too late to buy it now thanks to my Dad who didn’t want me to order it (even with my OWN money). All of my photos will be horrible quality and blurred. GRR! I won’t have the TIME to worry about making it a great shot. I just want a better point and shoot camera with a waterproof case for this trip!

Despite all this whining and cheesing, I’m really excited to go! I did order 3 books for the planes there.

Designing Sociable Robots (by Cynthia Breazeal)
The Emotion Machine (by Marvin Minsky)
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (by Philip C. Jackson, Jr.)

I already started reading some of them! Introduction to Artificial Intelligence is very very very mathematical. I like it a lot, except for the parts where I have to re-read chapters But really intriguing. It sort of teaches you a different way to think about AI. As for Designing Sociable Robots, it’s as awesome as I thought it would be! I haven’t exactly started reading The Emotion Machine as I didn’t really adore how it’s written at first glance. It’s sort of like a big FAQ book that can tell a story. However, I look forward to reading it on the planes! It’s probably a really good book, I just didn’t like it at first glance.

I really like Artificial Intelligence Just the thought of designing something that can process thought and learn is really remarkable to me..

On the plane I’m also going to print out a few Project Euler questions and work on it on paper. That site is REALLY addicting! Not to mention, I’ll have my iPod video saturated with videos (maybe I’ll put Chuck on it )! I’ll be listening to Robots podcast and the old Talking Robots podcast! Maybe a few Mugglecasts too. =D

I’m not 100% sure if I will be able to blog while I’m at Stanford. I’m not even sure if I will want to. I can blog anytime when I get home! I’ll probably just write in a journal about what happened each day, and then for 3 weeks I’ll post them up here. It will be kind of like re-living the experience, I guess!

Oh yeah, I’m staying a few extra days! I want to see the JPL very badly. =D

With all this said, I’d really like to thank everyone that helped, donated, or bought a Styrobot! This dream wouldn’t have been possible without you guys. ^_^

Posted in: Other, Projects.

I’m going!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Posted in: News, Tech News.

Interviewed!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

…and not for a job Check it out on RoboJenny’s site.

Yaay 1st interview!! ^_^

Posted in: News, Robot News.

|Advanced Order| and |Thanks, MAKE!|

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Thanks to MAKE for featuring my Styrobots. I really appreciate the encore! Encore encore encore! Yay!!

There is one Styrobot left – Spideygoo – in my Etsy store.

The next ones that I’ll be uploading (fruity themed!) will all be advanced order. Meaning, the switch, battery, and motor have not been installed yet, and they will only ship when I come back from the Stanford trip.

Also- I figured out a way to connect many Arduinos together without using a computer as a central hub. It will sort of be the speed of light minus processing time. Kind of like Fibre optics but a bit different. ;D I think it will work well! I’m going to be using this knowledge to make a super powered Wall-E robot with AI. =D

Posted in: News, Projects, Robot, Robot News.