Voice-Controlled Robosapien

robotsrule writes "Robosapien Dance Machine, a free, open source program hosted on SourceForge, now uses the CMU Sphinx 3.5 speech recognition engine. The Sphinx 3.5 engine is also a free, open source program on SourceForge. You can now control your Robosapien robot using just your voice as well as build fun complex scripts to make your Robosapien robot dance, do comedy skits, and other performances. Currently the software uses the USB UIRT infrared transceiver to talk to the robot. Support for other infrared devices is being added this month. There is a short unrehearsed movie of the robot responding to voice commands that you can watch."

Comments

Voice recognition is cool, but...

[TooMuchEspressoGuy]

...can the Robosapien run Linux?

(Cue random follow-up poster linking to robosapienlinux.com)

Definitely offtopic- don't even bother

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is it that no one comes to /. on Sundays? Are that many /.ers religious? I would usually go, but my dad left without me.

Open source USB UIRT?

[kyoorius]

Is there an open source design available for the USB UIRT?

~kyoorius

Try Dancing with This

[Alien54]

Neogentronyx is currently in the process of constructing a Bipedal Exo-Skeletal Robotic Vehicle, known as a Mech and designated NMX04-1A. Their goal is not simply to build the NMX04-1A. The purpose of the NMX04-1A is proof of concept and to make the first bold step towards full production of Mecha vehicles.

One priority is the goal of constructing Mecha in a way that will be affordable to civilians and not just commercial entities. There are plenty of pretty pictures and info here. See also these larger more recent pics

I can just imagine a mosh pit filled with these things.

Re:More like a voice controlled remote control

[jc_panda]

check that - put it on a laptop or a Palm. Hey, that would be cool! Voice recognition for Palm. then I could RULE THE WORLD!!!!!!!! http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=72 77

Next steps - robotic evolution

[zappepcs]

Interestingly, the Robosapien and variants of software to control it are a few of the intermediate steps necessary for humans in general to accept robots as and for what they are.

Currently, cute toys, or dangerous machines (like auto manufacturing) is about the limits of what is acceptable. Most people, even on /. don't really know what autonomous robotics is about. This is just how it is.

There have been studies that show that if a robot has a very realistic human face and features, it is viewed initially as disgusting or evil. There is an aclimatization time before humans get used to a machine that has such features. There is even a name for this reaction??

We, in general, are not yet ready to pay for something that might be described as a man-sized robosapien. Currently, the price of such would be in the 100s of thousands of dollars, if it were possible. Batteries just don't last long enough for that.

It is silly things like voice control of a toy that will help pay for and develop technologies that will lead to the grail of man sized Robosapiens, in-car AI, home care robots, hospital asset and stores management, and many other things that are just out of range right now.

We are not far from being able to replace the grocery stock boy (you can bet Walmart will be on the bleeding edge of that one) and several other things that are just begging for robotic labor. (sweeping parking lots, lawn care, etc.) There are a lot of efforts being made for farm machinery because it lowers the cost of production in areas where there aren't people waiting for the jobs.

Anyway, its good to see efforts being made outside of educational and governmental institutions, especially open source efforts.

New?

[mishmash]

Robosapien comes with the ability to respond to noises out of the box.

The manufacturers instructions for programming it to act as a noise sensitive guard are here.

Apparantly their next product is going to be a robot dog... everything goes round in circles

Robosapien = Nothing Special

[Lord_Dweomer]

I'm sorry, but why is everybody so impressed with the robosapien? They've had voice controlled toy robots for years.

And before anybody says its not a toy because of how complex its walking system is....well, give it normal sized feet so that its not impossible for it to fall over and then I'll consider it little more than an expensive toy with a good PR team behind it.

Forget robots, I want Voice Recognition in my car

[timothy]

Forgive me if you like toy robots :) That's between you, your therapist, and your AIBO.

I'd like voice recognition in my computer (which, Yes, is next to my bed, and my bed is where I'm typing from at the moment) to do things like ...

- Set an alarm clock ("Alarm Clock, wakeup call seven thirty.")

- Listen to audio programs without turning on the monitor (when you want to sleep, and can't, I don't like turning on my monitor again just long enough to pick a new program to lull me to sleep; would be better to say "Audio player, MP3, ocean sounds.")

- connect to VoIP services ("Vonage Call Claire.")

So I'm glad to see it in robots, if that's what gets people interested enough to make progress -- it's like a casino; those shrimp are my bonus because of what other people like to do :)

timothy