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Linux-based Bluetooth Robot
foobar2k writes "Sony Ericsson is showcasing their Rob-1 bluetooth controlled robot, which interestingly is running Linux. You can control the robot using your bluetooth enable mobile phone!" It's sort of a phone-controlled camera drone. From the product page: "This limited-edition Bluetooth(TM) camera on wheels really has an eye for things! Use your phone or PC to steer it. Bright lights at the front of ROB-1 lead the way."
I saw this demonstrated last weekend, on my trip to CeBIT.
Here's a close up picture I took.
My impressions of it were that it seemed very big - would have been a lot more impressive had they miniaturised it a bit.
There is a 38% chance this is a dupe.
from the "you're a nigger-now" dept.
I'm a fairly technical user, not a tech god by any stretch of the imagination, but I know my way around. I know how to forward ports on my router, I do all my own XVID rips from Vdub, I can install most Linux distros without a problem, and I'm damned proficient at packages like Photoshop and Illustrator. In addition, I'm a gamer from back in the DOS days, so concepts like editing text files (config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc) don't necessarily scare me.
That said, as much as I like the concept of Linux, I simply will not try it any longer until I hear that a number of problems have been solved.
A) Having to recompile kernels/worrying that apps will be broken by upgrading that kernel. For that matter, I don't want to have to compile anything, ever. Just to make this clear, never. Come up with either something akin to Windows where I click on a standard installer, or make it like Mac where I just drag and drop the folder.
B) Any time I'm forced to drop to a command line, you as a developer have failed. Back 10 years ago, this may have been acceptable. In this day and age, it isn't. Furthermore, while once in a blue moon I may change a text file in Windows, in Linux it's a constant occurence. Again, you have failed.
C) MAN pages do not cut it. Neither does a message board where half the time I'll be called a clueless n00b, 25% of the time I'll be told to use a different distro, and the other 25% of the time I'll get genuinely helpful people giving me contradictory answers. If I'm expected to jump to an alien computing environment you'd best make sure your documentation is up to snuff. Linux sucks in this regard.
I'm an advanced user who's in favor of open source, but the bizarre, arcane, and technical details I have to jump through to achieve the same things that are comparatively simple in Mac or Windows may Linux a deal breaker. You will never, ever, become successful on the desktop until idiocy like this is exorcised from the OS.
What's next, a 802.11g vibrator? How about a penis-to-USB-adaptor running FreeBSD? I know, a SCO-powered butt-plug!
...who reads this and thinks 'CRUNCH'
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
Too bad there's not a mod point for porn potential, the shot of their demo panning up and down on the woman gave me the idea that this would be perfect for all manner of perversions. It's like an X10 on wheels.
R(k)
tHinking too UnavAilable HURD entirely
oh ?, what do you mean "i can't" ?
Otherwise, i don't care what it run...
I can now stop time, but the effect is only temporary
What other purpose can this thing have?
I know exactly where to take it :)))
You might want to think about wearing more pants this summer...
I hate Grammar Nazi's
Well, now there's a company that offers coverage against the unfortunate event of robot attack, with Old Glory Insurance. Old Glory will cover you with no health check-up or age consideration. You need to feel safe. And that's harder and harder to do nowadays, because robots may strike at any time. And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong.
Now, for only $4 a month, you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of crime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So, don't cower under your afghan any longer. Make a choice.
Old Glory Insurance. For when the metal ones decide to come for you - and they will."
Does that mean that Linux now supports Bluetooth?
O, wait, they did not say Debian
I thought typing contact names on the keypad was hard, but typing long path names is going to be murder.
I'm glad SonyEricsson is continuting to unveil new uses for bluetooth. Bluetooth is one of the most under-utilized standards on the market. Every digital camera should have bluetooth to allow you to easily send pictures instantly from any Camera/Bluetooth cellphone combo.
If anyone has a SonyEricsson T610 - T617 you can use it to control Winamp, Powerpoint, and all sorts of other things remotely by using the wonderful floAt's Mobile Agent.
Bluetooth has great potential and tons of new cell phones are now bluetooth enabled. Someone other than SonyEricsson please start innovating!
- Cary
--
Fairfax County Ticket and Arrest Search
If so, I don't know how they plan on fitting those CDs in this thing every 6 months.
Now all the teenage girls/guys can get this robot to drive their car.
Since they are on the phone anyhow, they can just talk and control the car driving blue tooth robot at the same time!
If they can just give this robot the brain power of a cockroach, I'll feel safer on the road!
Oh no. There's a leak at LucasFilm.
I, for one, welcome our new Linux-based bluetooth-controlled robot overlords!
welcome our new Bluetooth robot overlords.
Sorry, but like an extermination-bent Dalek, I can neither get too excited nor too fearful of anything that can't climb the freakin' stairs.
Wake me up when it hovers.
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
...or does this encourage a whole new level of slacking off at work.
So now ROB-1 can patrol the corridor and look out for your boss while you're in your room trying to break your Tetris high score.
I'm sorry, but this has no useful functions except as an upskirt cam(lets hope not), hallway monitor, or geek-chic-it-runs-linux-and-rolls-on-wheels status symbol.
Wait a sec...
Nevermind, forget everything I just said, this fits the Slashdot demographic just fine.
Looks like something from Episode -7.
Yo, seen the new hotness Kubuntu?
e lease=286&slide=13
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?r
Now THIS is news!
that's a feat all by itself. I f*cking HATE sony ericsson pieces of shit, esp. the T6xx series. I'm amazed they could get enough range (like, more than 6 inches away) to use the thing remotely.
I find this entry seriously uncompelling.
A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless - they weren't having sex.
The University Clinic of Lubek said they had never heard of a case like it after examining the couple who went to see them last month for fertility tests.
Doctors subjected them to a series of examinations and found they were both apparently fertile, and should have had no trouble conceiving.
A clinic spokesman said: "When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: "What do you mean?".
"We are not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate."
The 30-year-old wife and her 36-year-old husband are now being given sex therapy lessons while the university clinic undertakes a study to try to find out if there are more couples with a similar lack of sex education.
Can ANYONE tell me why that is even remotely useful? It's a "robot" that takes pictures with the help of a person?
No. Er. Has anyone?
For the first 1,000 absoultly nothing.
The 1,001st, a whole new perspective on the dressing rooms at K-Mart (Walmart)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...
Look out Redmond!
This slashdot-related signature is a stub. You can help kihjin by expanding it.
These beasts could be dangerous: As other comments have already pointed out they will most likely wander about and do upskirt photos.
Oh, wait... Shooting upskirt photos isn't forbidden under Asimov's laws, it it?
In Korea only old people use Bluetooth controlled robots.
Wasn't ROB 1 the name of the short lived NES robot peripheral? Damn Sony, first you muscle in on the handheld gaming market and now this?? Have you no shame?
This is yet another root to Ping-chan's family tree.
And yes, I want one.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
which interestingly is running Linux
Wait. You're thinking of that other thing... "tedious"!
It's supported in newer kernels and there are quite a few Debian packages for bluetooth. In my experiences, it works much better than in Windows XP.
How come I can't get the fucking cheese out of this grater? The holes have been made too tiny and the cheese is too moist. It's like this cheesy mush that threads together in the center of the grating wheel (it's one of those circular graters with the arm you spin... That's how it's getting stuck... You know, in the middle part.) I tried pushing it out with my index finger and caught myself on one of the edges... Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but I tried with a knife just before and actually caused the metal to tear creating a sharp edge (unknown to me just before sticking my finger in there.) So I have my finger in this circular cheese grater and it's started to bleed... There's a little pool of blood forming right in the pocket of moist yellow cheese from where my finger compressed it. For some reason it still wouldn't come out, and now I was bleeding all over it. It was not a good situation. I abandon the knife and the finger ideas (the knife being too pointy and my finger being too soft and rippable) and attempt a spoon. Holy fuck, it worked! So the cheese comes out in this strand-ey (due to the various strands being ripped asunder and re-united by the finger pushing) sort of bloody cylinder with a big dip on the top. I realize I've been biting my lip this whole time and I had this really intense look on my face. I shout a victory scream, and realize my girlfriend has been watching me this entire time. Anyhow, I smiled at her and she shook her head and left the room... I figured it was for the best as the worst was yet to come. I took the cheese grater and threw it out of the kitchen in disgust... This is about the time when I decided this entire process would be made a lot easier with the aid of robots. No, it was time to begin from scratch, no grater was required. I'd build this fucker. Right then and there I decided to try and build a mechanical cheese grater. I pulled out my robotics books from the cookbook cupboard (don't ask) and got my trusty parts box and tool kit. I began with a pretty simple little motor and got a converter to plug it into the wall. It's at this point that I had to head into the other room to get the grater I had originally disgarded. Anyhow, I get the grater and (through the magic of solder and a bit of duct tape) managed to attach the thing to the motor. I took my screwdriver and forced the holes to be a bit bigger (which would hopefully solve the problem of the bloody cheese cylinder.) I decided there needed to be some way to keep the pressure on the cheese so that it would be forced into tiny little holes (and RIPPED TO PIECES, FUCK YES. DIE YOU FUCKING CHEESE!!1!) Anyhow, to solve this problem I rigged up a bit of a spring and pulley system (attached to a second motor) onto the original lever and let 'er fly. There was a lot of noise, and I think I've blocked the rest out of my memory (probably for the best, therapy can be expensive, but you don't need therapy for what you can't remember, ah-hah!) The next thing I know, I'm laying on the floor and there is cheese -EVERYWHERE- my girlfriend is picking me up and I have glass all over myself. Stupid bowl got caught by the motorized grater and shards of glass came out where the cheese was supposed to. I was lucky, I lived, but let this be a lesson to all of you. Do -NOT- mess with motorized cheese graters. Or, if that's a bit too specific for you (and trust me, it does cover a wide range of dangers) don't tamper with cheese related products, it's for the best if you just back down. There is no way to stress this enough. Plain cheese graters may cramp up your hand and strain your arm, they may even not work, but you CAN NOT REPLACE THEM WITH ROBOTS!
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
These totally remind me of casters on my chair.
As such I would like to put 5 of these (running in syncro)on my office chair. Then i could grab a coffee or go to the can with out getting up from my chair.
Or perhaps even better, install one or two of these units on an unwitting co-workers chair and let the fun begin...
surely slashdot will asplode!
"Linux based bluetooth robot"
Did you hear that?
It was the sound of 1,000,000 Slashdot readers having an orgasm simultaneously.
"camera on wheels" or, COW....
STEER it? hehe
thanks, ill be here all night, my tip jar is over there.
yap
For some reason, this reminds me of that little remote-controlled spy cockroach in the Fifth Element. If only we could have a huge slew of these little robots... we could have a fleet that could take over the world! Except mountains. Reception sucks up there.
1) Buy a bunch of linux-based robots! ...
2) Make em into a giant Beowulf Cluster!
3)
4) Profit!
5) Use em to invade Soviet Russia!
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
Whoa cool man! That thing'll keep me amused for at least five minutes! If it only costs a hundred bucks then that's only twenty bucks a minute. Only 5x as much as phone sex with a professional dominatrix. What a bargain. Hmmm... what to do with that $100 bucks I got for my birthday. Either make five calls to Mistress Paulina or watch a plastic wheel roll around the linoleum kitchen floor on my phones little screen until I get tired of it. Oh who'm I kidding? I'm a geek. Where do I buy one of these Rob-1 thingys?
Now, with the army of killer robots upon us, the only thing that can save us is: The Bluetooth Rifle!
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Seems like this robot will have to see the BlooTooh Dentist and get a blue-job right in the grater or the teeth.
...
I guess when the bloo-tooth mouth appliance is embedded, some nerdy engineers will stay at work frisking the prototype.
Wife/Boyfriend: You're spending a lot of hours at work lately...
Nerd: YEH! They brought in a BlooTooth robot. Once I saw it and checked it out, it bloo me away.
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Aside from that, imagine the cheese-funk or the stench coming from that robot's mouth? If there is a cooling fan installed, that bastard will have bad breath. What's the cure for robot halitosis, anyway? Robi-tossus? Or, is it....
R-O-B-O-T-U-S-S-I-N??
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OK, guys, let's not hump the robot, cuz when the next engineer figures out it CAN be humped, it will just end up being....
Humpty-Dumpty...
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Of course, withh the cheese still in mouth, you can probably take this thing to Japan and stand it along one of the ISDN and other slow phones and make a
H-A-L-I- fax to Nova Scotia.....
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This would be the KILLER BOT for serious gamers... in the boxing ring. Just program it for a round-house kick...
=======
Some engineers will be looking for the bloo-bot's bolts... but others will surely be looking for its...
nuts....
===
QUICK... somebody file a patent...
Appendages Pending...
hmmmm
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I don't see anywhere that it says it runs linux. But assuming it does, what cpu is hiding in there? I'm assuming some sort of MIPS since that's what Sony seems to like for consumer devices. But what else? Can I ssh into it? Memory? I need specs people!
Sick of seeing linux all over the place, linux here, linux there.. Hrr, fuck it, use *BSD.
Does anyone know what profile(s) this uses to communicate with the phone? I would think atleast OBEX or OPP... Probably means that Motorola v710 owners are SOL.
Discovers the undocumented "Release Poison Gas" Command.
what more needs to be said?