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How to Build a Computerized Android Robot Head

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the maxmillian dept.

Wee writes "While searching for some serial port programming information, I came across a result labeled How to Build a Computerized Android Robot Head for $600. That title demanded a read. This guy built a Java and Perl/Tk controlled android head out of R/C motors, bicycle parts, a mannequin head, two QuickCams and my favorite item: a brass plant holder. Turns out the entire site is chock full of android/hardware/PC-control know-how (including scenarios in which one might find a need for an android head)."

58 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. You know by rblancarte · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just today I was asking how I could build a computerized android robot head for under $700. Now you posted it for the bargan price of $600. You rock.

    Althought I have to admit - this site is really cool. Maybe if I get some spare time (and money), I might partake this small project.

    RonB

    --
    It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
    1. Re:You know by pisdtal · · Score: 2, Funny

      I was just thinking too. But the thoughts I was thinking I dont know if I should be REALLY impressed or REALLY scared. I mean those scenarios.... I already know how to program a VCR :)
      I dont know about gettin all up into building a robot head, but maybe getting some, er uh, a robot head would be kinda cool

      --
      We admit all this to insure disbelief
  2. Karma whoring: Google cache by AaronStJ · · Score: 3, Informative

    In case the site goes under, here here's the Google cache.

    --
    Stupid like a fox!
  3. Finnally! by JuiceRat00 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I can finally get a head in life. Ok kill me now.

  4. If it wasn't for the 'computerized' part... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think I could deliver a 'head' without the 'computerized' parts for way less than $600...

  5. This is cool, but... by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 4, Funny

    What we really need is either a Billy Bass Intercom system, or a trash talking Furby. Servo motor geeks, perform your magic and summon these things for me.

    Besides, if I was going to do an android head, I'd at least build it out down to the boobs. It is a she, isn't it?

    1. Re:This is cool, but... by rainwalker · · Score: 2, Funny

      [drool]...Billy Bass Intercom system...now I can have high-tech communication systems without sacrificing my tacky white-trash heritage! :)

      Seriously though, I want one! or 4.

    2. Re:This is cool, but... by Cutriss · · Score: 3, Funny

      What we really need is either a Billy Bass Intercom system, or a trash talking Furby.

      Coolest thing I can think of that I eventually want to do...

      Take two Furbys, program them individually in isolated rooms by screaming at each one "Tetsuo!" and "Kaneda!" and then put one in front of the other, and let the fun begin!

      --
      "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
    3. Re:This is cool, but... by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually I've been considering that myself. I've been wanting to go into business for myself selling all sorts of goofy shit, and that would be one item in my catalog. Imagine putting on on the front door, and someone knocks. The fish head turns toward them, the mouth moves, and says "Whattaya want?"... the key of course, would be syncing the lips to the voice playing through it. Maybe some sort of DSP programmed to pick out the hard consonants (not perfect, but would be close enough).

      Then again, re-apholstering a Furby with a custom red felt skin, complete with barbed tail and horns would rock, wouldn't it? Have it chant out evil sounding things, "Worship me!" "I command you to desecrate churchs!" all in that sweet little furby voice.

      Of course, I would always have more serious products too. Just some thoughts.

    4. Re:This is cool, but... by Cutriss · · Score: 3, Funny

      The fish head turns toward them, the mouth moves, and says "Whattaya want?"... the key of course, would be syncing the lips to the voice playing through it. Maybe some sort of DSP programmed to pick out the hard consonants (not perfect, but would be close enough).

      Dear god...whatever you do, *don't* make that thing SING! Please...for the love of everything that's human! No more singing bass!!! Spare us all!

      --
      "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
    5. Re:This is cool, but... by cosyne · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm working on the trash-talking furby, i swear. The basic idea is this: there's one motor inside which runs a series of cams for the eyes, ears, mouth, and butt. Roughly, there's 180 degrees where the butt doesnt move, and the other 180 it goes up and down as the motor rotates. Now, each of those is split for, say, mouth movement: in the ranges 0-90 and 180-270, the mouth moves- if you want it to talk and tilt forward you use one range, if you want it to sit still and talk, you use the other. And it keeps getting subdivided into smaller ranges so you pick the angle range where the appropriate body parts move, and run the motor back and forth in that range.

      But i digress. The cool part is that the motor, home switch, and encoder just unplug from the motherboard, so it's not hard to plug them into your handy HC11 eval board and write a little controll algorithm. The fact that i haven't done this yet only speaks to my superior lazieness. But i will soon. Once i have a furby connected to my computer, i just cat whosyourdaddy to /dev/furby and i'm set. (and maybe i can get i posted and hose my website when i do :-)
      Check furby autposy for more info, or just pick one up for $5 and cut it open.
      Anyways, check out

  6. No need to build... by Accipiter · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pshaw. I don't need to build an android head. I found one deep in a cavern in San Francisco back in 1893.

    --

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
    (If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't. :P)

    1. Re:No need to build... by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

      I heard a kid on Tatooine built one for a lot less than 600 Republican Credits. He even put a magnetically levitated spinning doohickey in the middle of it for no particular reason at all.

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    2. Re:No need to build... by circletimessquare · · Score: 2

      I agree, why spend $600? There is an XYY penal colony planet where they throw away perfectly good android heads... torsos even! Although if you turn them back on they tend to spout a lot of existential crap.

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  7. Oh my God! by teslatug · · Score: 2

    He killed C3P0...that bastard

  8. Why build a robot head, by tcd004 · · Score: 5, Funny

    When it will only become infatuated with you, frustrated at your disinterest, and eventually try to kill you.

    Damn that 790!

    What's Dick Hiding?

    tcd004

    1. Re:Why build a robot head, by Skirwan · · Score: 4, Funny
      When it will only become infatuated with you, frustrated at your disinterest, and eventually try to kill you.

      Damn that 790!
      The dead do not damn.

      --
      I've got to assume most of the seventeen people who got that reference were amused by it...
    2. Re:Why build a robot head, by Ooblek · · Score: 2
      You would have to build the robot hand in order for it to kill you. Anyone remember that lame B-movie where the guy got his hand chopped off and it crawled around and attacked people?

      On that note, I think it would be ultra cool to put this in the planter outside of the front door. Put it right under a plant that just barely covers it so people don't notice it. When a solicitor comes to the door and rings the doorbell, program it to scream, "What the fuck do you want?" and start swearing like a sailor. Much, much better than a no solicitors sign.

    3. Re:Why build a robot head, by Ooblek · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but think of the gut-busting laughter you'll enjoy while she chases you around waving her fist in the air.

  9. Here is a much sexier android head... by geoffsmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Practically life-like!

    It's Valerie: The Domestic Android
    For all your domestic android head needs. Its a kit, although it looks like they're still working out the bugs.

    Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon

    1. Re:Here is a much sexier android head... by Chasuk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I really hope that Valerie the Domestic Android is a droll joke. If not, I am truly saddened by the human race. Let's further marginalize and objectify one half of our own species by producing sexualized machinery designed for manual labor and other, less edifying prospects.

      Too many geeks already have a hard time relating to real women - let's eliminate the need for them to ever learn. With lubrication and ingeniously designed orifices (and articulated appendages), geeks won't have to jerk themselves off as they surf the web... Valerie the Domestic Android will do it between laundry and dusting, with fellatio as a bonus, perhaps programmed as an "incentive" for those who remember to take baths or brush their teeth.

      We are entered the orbit of a terrifying, strange planet, and that planet is named Earth.

      The Gates Testimony - Why Microsoft Will Win

      --
      Neopets - the best free game on the Int
    2. Re:Here is a much sexier android head... by JabberWokky · · Score: 2
      Let's further marginalize and objectify one half of our own species by producing sexualized machinery designed for manual labor and other, less edifying prospects.

      If you'd bothered to read the site (it's vaporware, but at least interesting), you would have read that they explicitly say that Valerie is *not* designed for sex, and is very likely not at all antonomically correct. She is a she just to appear less threatening (which may be sexist, but IMO is more culturalist, the same reason we don't paint our houses bright pink and why 95% of automated voices are female).

      And, since this article has a dozen movie references, I'd like to do a double by pointing out that the company is based in Denton. Maybe they are using some alien tech left there after a visitation about 27 years ago, eh?

      --
      Evan

      --
      "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
    3. Re:Here is a much sexier android head... by ryanwright · · Score: 2

      Let's further marginalize and objectify one half of our own species by producing sexualized machinery designed for manual labor and other, less edifying prospects.

      Oh, shut up. They could just as easily have made it look like a man. They chose a female merely because people relate better to females and will be more accepting of a female robot than they would a male bot. If anything, this says that the designers think more highly of females than they do males, so you can stop whipping that dead sexist horse anytime now.

      --
      -Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
    4. Re:Here is a much sexier android head... by Chasuk · · Score: 2

      I'm sorry, but I miss your "visitation" reference entirely. I assume that it is filmic. To which motion picture are you alluding?

      And have you ever heard of Suffolk pink? Many houses in the UK are painted that color (which, charmingly, is/was traditionally produced by mixing buttermilk and pig's blood to the paint).

      --
      Neopets - the best free game on the Int
    5. Re:Here is a much sexier android head... by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 2
      The Rocky Horror Picture Show&nbsp&nbsp

      --
      If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
    6. Re:Here is a much sexier android head... by JabberWokky · · Score: 2
      And have you ever heard of Suffolk pink?

      I see your Suffolk pink and raise you the noxious pink mandated in Delray Beach (downtown is a uniform neon ugly), and common throughout South Florida.

      Blearg. One of the reasons I'm glad I left.

      --
      Evan

      --
      "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  10. It has been forseen. by Hammerself · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bob the Angry flower one-upped this guy a long time ago.

    Building the Perfect Psychic Dummy Head

  11. What happens if you say... by gnovos · · Score: 2

    ..."neuromancer" to it?

    --
    "Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
  12. Realdoll applications by CmdrTaco+(editor) · · Score: 2, Funny
    I can see it now, this attached to a RealDoll! $5,000 has never before brought you so much pleasure!

    Seriously, as someone has mentioned here before, in order for technology to be successfuly it has to somehow relate to pornography/sex. This has definite potential.

    1. Re:Realdoll applications by kaosrain · · Score: 3, Funny

      Imagine the surprise when the unknowing recipient of such a gift decides to give her an oral exam...

      Oh sweetheart, you're gonna give daddy a treat...open wide...mmm...tha zzzzZZZZzzzzZZZttt!

      I propose the name Lorena.

  13. Ooh, the irony by Chazmati · · Score: 5, Funny
    His specialties are software development, system building, performance tuning, parallel distributed computing, system programming, X11 configuration and software development, web development and System Administration.

    Wait for it...

    Building humaniform robots is one of his many hobbies. Pat's interests include sentient robot life forms, theoretical physics, gravity, electricity, magnetism, dimensions, complexity, astronomy, weather, chaos...

    Almost there...

    Pat can be reached at (protected)@aol.com

    I never thought I'd see a parallel-distributed computing, X11-hacking, web-developing sys admin that uses AOL. I suppose with all those complicated hobbies he just wants a nice, relaxing, online experience.

    1. Re:Ooh, the irony by Skirwan · · Score: 3, Funny
      I never thought I'd see a parallel-distributed computing, X11-hacking, web-developing sys admin that uses AOL. I suppose with all those complicated hobbies he just wants a nice, relaxing, online experience.
      That makes perfect sense, except for the part about AOL being nice, relaxing, or online.

      (Insert Rimshot Here)

      --
      Damn the Emperor!
    2. Re:Ooh, the irony by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2

      Having a AOL account is amusing on the surface, but there are a couple really great reasons to use AOL. Maybe he works with for a small company/freelancer and needs a cheap ISP for traveling. Joe's Geek ISP may only want $10 a month and might give you a shell account but Joe doesn't cover the entire country with dial-ups. Sure, there are other nationwide ISPs but how many of them will give the first month free and when you call to cancel every month they beg you to try it again free for another month? A friend has been getting free dial-up access for months doing this.

      I'm sure this is his trashcan/spam account. Might as well make an alias from one of mom's 10 screennames to capture all the geeky, "You are KEWL! Wanna join my everquest guild??? :)" emails.

    3. Re:Ooh, the irony by PCM2 · · Score: 2
      His specialties are software development, system building, performance tuning, parallel distributed computing, system programming, X11 configuration and software development, web development and System Administration. Pat's interests include sentient robot life forms, theoretical physics, gravity, electricity, magnetism, dimensions, complexity, astronomy, weather, chaos...
      With a personals ad like that, it's no wonder he's got such an interest in building synthetic humanoid robots...
      --
      Breakfast served all day!
  14. Now by littleRedFriend · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does it dream of electric sheep?

    --
    IANAL, but imagine a beowulf cluster of in Soviet Russia all your belong are base to us welcoming the new SCO overlords.
  15. nice parts list! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    some highlights...

    Hanging-light On/Off chain (in case it gets too depressed, I guess)
    Plastic tie-straps (slightly kinky)
    Plumbers GOOP (ok, more kinky)
    Aluminum tape for eye-lids (whoa, too kinky for me)
    RC ball-joints/Tie-rods (dude, even I don't have joints there!)
    Plastic throw-away green cup
    Butt Connectors, RS 64-3037 (Yep, Tandy corp for all your rear panel connections)

  16. Android head has a posse by Wee · · Score: 3, Interesting
    from the site: Pat can be reached at (protected)@aol.com

    I never thought I'd see a parallel-distributed computing, X11-hacking, web-developing sys admin that uses AOL. I suppose with all those complicated hobbies he just wants a nice, relaxing, online experience.

    Hey man, the android head is cool. I was even making an "Android Head Has A Posse" sticker. I was just trying to find out the weight of the head (for the sticker) but the site was non-responsive. Then I checked Slashdot. I guess the site has gone out of my cache since I submitted it or something.

    But AOL'er or not, the friggin' head rocks. You can't get down on the man for his ISP. Not when he makes a motorized head out of a planter and bike parts that greats little Johnny when he gets home from school. Not even then, man. There are much easier targets than him. Find one who hasn't made a fully-functional robot head out of rat shack parts...

    -B

    --

    Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

    1. Re:Android head has a posse by Wee · · Score: 2
      I thought my jealousy was obvious.

      LOL...

      My thick head. Pardon me.

      -B

      --

      Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

  17. Sweet! by vex24 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Something to replace my old gizmo!

    http://www.fu-fme.com/


    ;)

    --

    People shape laws. Not the other way around.

    1. Re:Sweet! by t0qer · · Score: 2

      Your part plus mine
      would be even better!


  18. If only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If only the personal papers of Roger Bacon (1214-1294) had survived

    If they had, forget anything so outrageously expensive as $600, we would be able to build one of these solely using 13th century clockwork technology, and it would give us useful advice to boot

  19. Wheee by supermoose · · Score: 5, Funny

    The lazy man's guide to building a computerized android head:

    Step one - Find an android.
    Step two - Decapitate said android.

  20. Thanks, man.... by Wee · · Score: 2
    I was looking for cheap info about my LED-on-a-stick cash register deal when I found the android head site. I have to admit: getting a working android head is cool. Way cool. But it can't stream stock quotes and weather data on a cash register pole display... :-)

    -B

    --

    Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

    1. Re:Thanks, man.... by 56ker · · Score: 2

      I seem to remember years ago reading about someone do a software talking head for their thesis project. As to this it's not knew - some temple in SE Asia made a "talking monk" for the tourists that said prayers etc. For the life of me I can't remember any more details though - other than it cost a lot more than just a head would!

      --


      Video Game cheats, hints a
  21. Damn that'd actually be cool! by Greyfox · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'd have to build one and just carry it around with me everywhere. I bet you could program it to be whiney co-dependent when you're around and then the moment you leave have it start talking to your co-workers about how it hates you and wants to kill you. And record the fun for later! Damn that'd be creepy! I can see it now...

    Robot Head: I love you, Grey. Please pay attention to me.
    Me: Yeah, that's nice robot head but I've really got to complete this C code...
    After a while...
    Me: Bio break!
    Robot Head: No Grey... please don't go! I can't stand to be without you!
    Me: Gotta go when you gotta go! Departs
    Robot Head: Mike? Mike are you over there?
    Mike: Um... yeah...?
    Robot Head: Mike... you don't know the things he makes me do Mike! No sentient being could stay sane, Mike! You MUST help me to kill him! You have arms Mike! It'd be so easy for you... rant continues until I return.
    Me: Have you been a good robot head?
    Robot Head: Oh yes! I am so joyful that you are back! My circuits are all abuzz!
    Mike: Um dude... that thing wants to kill you!
    Me: Is that true, robot head?
    Robot Head: No! Lies! I love you! I could never even think of killing you!

    It could be hours of fun, I tell you!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  22. other interesting site by cosyne · · Score: 2

    Saw this a while ago on the wear-hard list, but another interesting site mentioned there was www.androidworld.com. Maybe not the best designed site in the world, but some interesting stuff if you like robots ;-)

  23. not bad for just a head by squidinkcalligraphy · · Score: 2, Funny
    Still doesn't beat the world's first robotic police officer

    --
    "I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
  24. Unprepared by Snafoo · · Score: 2, Funny
    From the site:



    This safety issue is the primary drawback to using an unprepared fiberglass head....Some things to consider when choosing a head are that the space behind the eye openings has enough room for the moving Eye-Bracket.



    Geez, yeah! I went into an exam the other day with a completely unprepared fibreglass head. Or at least, all that late-night vodka sure made it feel like fibreglass! There was certainly no space behind the eye openings for any sort of ocular movment --- just reading the assignment was painful. Do you know where I could buy a pre-prepared head of the correct proportions? I didn't even know they were detatchable! Dammit I should never have slept so much during first-year bio.....

    --
    - undoware.ca
  25. Re:OK by qqtortqq · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So how come a total idiot like me can't do stuff like this?

    see bolded section

    The sad thing is that this cost the guy $600+ dollars not to mention a LOT of free time. And where did it get him. . .

    happy, thats where. some people spend thousands on R/C helicopters, where does that get them? happy. people need hobbies, this is just a really cool and original one.

  26. Taking it to the next level... by Angry+Black+Man · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Georgia Tech students have put together a project called the "Aware House." They're basic given a two level house downtown to do all sorts of experiments to see how they can improve on living. One of their projects is an "android-style" face that could represent the face of the house showing and telling all sorts of useful things about what is going on. You can find the "Giving the house a face" page here, and the Aware House website here.

    --
    the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
  27. Cranium Chassis? by Sly+Mongoose · · Score: 2

    Is that, like, American for "Skull"?

  28. Poor choice of video parts by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Quickcam VC? YUCK! get a bt878 card 2 analog video cameras and a video switcher to swap between L/R. this eliminates focus/whitebalance/iris/etc.. problems that plague the VC (and the VC is horribly slow/icky to begin with) this would allow you to do a reg/blue image processing to allow 3d display at the workstationat a decent framerate (10-15fps) AND allow you to play with some image detection.

    Although such work would need either a really fast computer or a rewrite in C.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  29. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  30. Danger! by FurryFeet · · Score: 2

    He also has plans for a foot, and aparently is working on a hand...
    You know, this is how that Terminator thing started... it's time to use the slashdot effect for good! Charge!

  31. Re:Robot Smackdown! by sporktoast · · Score: 2

    Oh man, I'd forgotten about that!
    And hey! I resemble that remark! Not everyone around here is a young whipper-snapper.

    --
    In a related story, the IRS has recently ruled that the cost of Windows upgrades can NOT be deducted as a gambling loss.
  32. A little bit of math... by Decimal · · Score: 2

    Okay, am I the only one who sees the potential for, ehm... abuse?

    Reprogrammed Valarie + RealDoll = A housemaid that is REALLY eager to please.

    (Necessary tools: handsaw, duct tape)

    --

    Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
  33. You'll never want a "real man" again. by Decimal · · Score: 2

    You must have watched "A.I." recently.

    Hey Gigilo Joe, whaddya know?

    --

    Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
  34. Wouldn't be that hard... by Greyfox · · Score: 2

    If it had to maintain a lucid conversation, that'd be tricky. But it's pretty easy to fake an insane person, and you could toggle it between fawning co-dependent and paranoid schizophrenic with a remote switch. Combine this with peoples' desire to suspend their disbelief and I bet you could maintain enough of an illusion for it to be seriously creepy for your co-workers.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?