Slashdot Mirror

Bluetooth is a good option, also look at RFID. There are RFID kits that are windows compatible. Check it out and hopefully this will help get you started as to some of the possibilities. http://www.trossenrobotics.com/p/RFID-experimenters-kit.aspx?feed=Froogle -cluge

There are numerous kits available, best sources for choosing one would be http://www.pololu.com/ , http://www.trossenrobotics.com/ , http://www.robotshop.com/ , http://www.lynxmotion.com/ , http://www.makershed.com/ and a bunch of others. http://sparkfun.com/ and http://adafruit.com/ for more general electronics components

Cant really recommend one in particular, as it depends on what you want to do. There are several categories : 2wheel differential drive bases, legged hexapods, 4wd bases, even bipeds and robotic arms.

If you get one that is designed to be Arduino-compatible, and can take any number of Arduino expansion shields, you will have endless possibilities. I'd say easiest starting point is a complete 2WD kit with some accessory sensors. This is a nice one http://www.makershed.com/product_p/mkseeed7.htm , comes with motors and all. Just pick a "mainboard" and motor driver shield and you are good to go.

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/p/phidgets-encoder.aspx?feed=Froogle

The robot arm is straightforward. It looks like it's built out of Dynamixel servos, which are good little programmable servomotors used for the better end of hobbyist robotics. (After 25 years, finally something better than one-way pulse code modulation for hobby servo control. These things use a 1mb/s bidirectional multidrop serial bus.) There are standard brackets for making robot arms and legs, and it looks like they just bolted the thing together from the stock parts kit.

It's not clear how much the software knows about faces. That's the important part. Considerable work has been done on facial feature detection. There are commercial products available. Most of them ignore hairstyle, though, since they're aimed at face recognition.

We are not too far from this capability (http://beagleboard.org/) However, robots suffer from a low quantity, increasing their per-unit cost. If you are serious about focusing on just the AI portion, then buy the rest pre-built. http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/5764-CoroBot-CB-LA.aspx?feed=Froogle

I've modded my pedal after the cheap one that came with the kit inevitably broke after the third day of playing. Since the bass pedal connects to the rest of the kit using a mono audio plug, it's easy for someone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of electronics (me) to rig a real bass pedal to work with the kit. Documented here: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2029 [scorehero.com]

Having a background in high reliability electronics, I know many switches are rated for a limited number of operations before they wear out. A button designed for occasional use often quickly expire in this type application which you found out. In many places a non-contact sensor is a much better choice. Either an optical interrupter or magnetic hall sensor or reed switch will be a better fit. The advantage of non-contact sensors is not only the wear issues, but they make no changes to the original function of the pedal.

A sensor like one of these is literally good for millions of operations. The bearings in your pedal will be dead first.
http://www.melexis.com/Sensor_ICs_Hall_effect/Hall_effect_Bipolar_Switches/Bipolar_Hall_Switch_-_Very_High_Sensitivity_141.aspx
For sheer simplicity and the lack of need for a power supply, you can't beat a reed switch. They are cheap and easy to get.
http://www.hascorelays.com/reed_switches.asp
For a simple ready to use package for your pedal, one of the switches used on door and window alarms is ideal.
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/3503-Security-Reed-Switch.aspx?feed=Froogle
Connecting these is a no brainer for beginners in electronics

If you want to get into robotics, whether it be beginner, intermediate, or advanced, I'd definately check out Trossen Robotics: http://www.trossenrobotics.com/ We started off as PhidgetsUSA. Phidgets are great and have a wonderful API, but since they can be used in so many different areas, it makes them difficult to market. While we were marketing Phidgets technology, we kept running across some really cool people/companies in the robotics field, so we decided to focus solely on the robotics market, and partner up with all of these companies:) We still sell Phidgets as well, but we're marketing them more towards robotics. We're still in the startup phase, with updates to the website being done everyday. However, we already have a pretty impressive product line, with a ton more products being added in the coming months! - Alex