Hardware Hacking In The WSJ

NaDrew writes "The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece called "So Your Roomba Vacuums ... Does It Also Take Pictures?" (No reg. req.), profiling a couple of hardware hackers. Phillip Torrone has modified a laptop-brained robot to follow his Segway, which he is modifying to follow a pink ball. He's also modded his Roomba with a built-in Webcam. The article goes into a bit of the history of hardware hacking, from the CueCat to Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang's Xbox hacks."

Comments

Spy-Blimp

[ImaLamer]

It took me a few minutes to find it... but I've always wanted one of these (R/C Flying Saucer) from Mondo-Tronics Robot Store. It's basically a blimp.

The page says: "As a rule of thumb, one cubic foot of helium will lift one ounce of cargo." So get a bigger ballon for heavier cameras...

I actually wanted a big house to go with this and pictured myself sitting by the pool spying on the help this. It would just be cool to greet people in the foyer with it... maybe a speaker and mic to round it out.

Re:My Roomba doesn't take pictures

[AbbyNormal]

Did you read the article? How was that marked as "Insightful"? The article is about what makes the tech industry Great. Innovation. The article focused around people that had problems or issues with current technologies, and decided to invent something to better their lives (okay, so the Atari Gameboy, probably wasted more time). I think rather than externalize their actions, they bring a whimsical nature to technology that is often times unnapproachable by other people. Cmon, the computer inside of a beer case? Why not? How is that going to harm anything?

If we all accepted the norm and did things only as we've been told, the state of technology will never change. What about if some "search and rescue" company sees the roomba with the webcam and says: "Eureka! A way to make a cheaper disaster search vehicle".

You can have your high-brow ways. I am going to continue to innovate and play around with stuff ina "juvenile" way.

Try the robosapien.

[Thinkit4]

Great little robot for around $40h. Geeks will be immediately disappointed by the six step limit on the program. IR codes are already available on the web though.

Article missed the influence of the Internet

[xmas2003]

I was pretty surprised that no registration was required for the online one - nice job NaDrew - BTW, this article ran on the front page of the print edition.

For those that actually read the article (this is /. after all), I think the writer failed to mention the influence on the Internet of hacking. They talk about a "Hardware Hacking" book, but I'd argue that the easy/free exchange of information via the Internet has really caused hacking to increase. The picture next to the article is of a long-range wi-fi attenna ... and we've seen a bazillion of the "pringle can" options too, again, all abetted by the easy, quick sharing of lessons learned.

I also think they fail to point out this influence in other non-technical areas. For instance, I have a fairly decent web page about how to convert your BBQ Grill from LP to NG - based on Email I have gotten, lotsa folks have used this - I certainly will never write a book about it - ditto for my home made manometer - these are both "hacks" that are useful,

BTW, Blondie (from the comic strips) would love to use this device on Dagwood to curb his late night eating: While he was working at the computer-security company AtStake near Boston four years ago, Mr. Grand says too many colleagues were taking food that wasn't theirs from the office refrigerator. So he put the fridge into the cabinet of a big, unused Digital Equipment Corp. minicomputer. To the inside of the door, he bolted a custom-made circuit board that read employees' identification badges and unlocked for authorized eaters only. The setup was also rigged so Mr. Grand could log onto a Web site and monitor who was having late-night munchies.

Ultimate markettable gadget

[tod_miller]

"a Segway, which he is modifying to follow a pink ball"

If only Kamen knew of this, he could have sold so many more...

What is the point really? Although *penny drop* a segway robot is basically a unipedal/bipedal (how you define it) robot with self righting, low center of gravity, and a nice platform to place things.

So I guess if you could get it to follow you over any terrain, using GPS, that would be like...

The luggage!

(currently reading the light fantastic... ook!)

Only with less legs. Now if I scrawl wizzard onto my tinfoil hat I will feel complete!

Webcam?

[Jozer99]

I met the designer of the Rhoomba, and had the pleasure of him explaining in detail the workings of that robotic vacuum cleaner. How one would put a webcam on it I do not know, because the device has only 256 BYTES of RAM. Thats right. The new models have more but I think that it is still too little. The only way he could get a webcam on one of those would be to velcro or duct tape a laptop with wireless card and webcam on top, which is not a hard engineering feat, plus it might make the device too heavy to do anything.