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Do-It-Yourself Robotics

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the homemade-droids dept.

PreacherTom writes "Imagine Legos and Erector Sets on crack. The fruit of a collaboration between Lego and the MIT Media Lab, the Toronto-based startup Playful Invention Company is offering the PicoCricket, "a kit of parts that can be used to build an infinite variety of robotic inventions. The kit contains an assortment of pom poms, pipe cleaners, and other craft materials reminiscent of a summer camp art period. It also includes a collection of Lego bricks and electronics: the Cricket "brain" and a motor, colored lights and a soundbox, a digital display, and an infrared beamer that allows the Cricket to communicate with a PC on which kids write the programs that control their invention's behavior. Perhaps the most important parts in the Cricket kit are the four sensors, which detect light, sound, touch, and electrical resistance. "It was lots of fun making things and controlling their action," says Grover Venkatasubramaniam (age 10). "The most fun was programming the robots. It felt like giving life to lifeless bodies.""

10 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. What do you need those materials for. by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The kit contains an assortment of pom poms, pipe cleaners, and other craft materials reminiscent of a summer camp art period.

    This one time at summer camp, I built a cheerleader robot.

    --
    God spoke to me.
    1. Re:What do you need those materials for. by imikem · · Score: 4, Funny

      And it laughed at you, I presume. This being /. and all.

      --
      Perscriptio in manibus tabellariorum est.
    2. Re:What do you need those materials for. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      It could be my font, maybe my mind, but did anyone else read that as...

      ... an assortment of porn porns,

    3. Re:What do you need those materials for. by rdoger6424 · · Score: 2, Funny

      it's probably your rnind going rnental. or your rnonitor could be rnalfunctioning. It could be rnicrosoft, rnaybe. You rnust rnake sure to wipe your rnonitor. That is rnost of rny rnessage. rnotherfick!

      --
      "Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
  2. Re:Hi Mister Teacher, my name is... by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

    . . .raman-i-am.

    I just call him "Noodle" for short.

    KFG

  3. Perfect job for him! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The most fun was programming the robots. It felt like giving life to lifeless bodies.""

    Maybe he could get that job with Stephen Hawking...

  4. wow, pipe cleaners ! by dualmoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    we'll be able to clean up the internet and its tubes !

  5. Droids by EMeta · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just don't know... I still don't think these are the droids I'm looking for.

  6. still can't get passed this part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Erector Sets on crack ...I can see the spam now,... yes...

    -m10

  7. For the last time... by owlnation · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...says Grover Venkatasubramaniam (age 10). "The most fun was programming the robots. It felt like giving life to lifeless bodies
    ....It's pronounced "Fronkensteen"