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Mac Book Pro as Roomba Remote
adelord writes "Alpha Geeks have a new do-it-yourself project to terrorize the cat with: use Perl with a MacBook Pro's Sudden Motion Sensor to control a Roomba. Wired's Cult of Mac cites the original site which has other fun ways to pimp your Roomba . This gets my award for most inefficient use of tech, time, and training for the week. It won't freak out her cat nearly as much as a RoboRaptor on Roam mode. "
It's a Mac article, but there's so much text-based scripting my head asplode.
A roomba is an automatic hoover,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Here goes my karma.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
As a viable, inexpensive alternative for the general public to control their Roombas
Download codes here: http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/search/search .cgi?Match=1&Terms=roomba
As this part of the story is the only one that is remotely of interest to me (Mac Controlled Roomba ! Wow ! at last ! my dreams are fulfilled ! and I can now die at peace knowing humanity has reached its peak !)
Do any of you know of a robotic toy to amuse the cat ? The Roboraptor Robotic Dinosaur is very nice, but it lacks the ability to going back on its feets on its own. Knowing my cat, I think i'd have to reset it upright every 5/10 seconds.
I'm looking at something that could be "autonomous", can stand upright by itself, and is more or less cat-proof so my cat can have something to play with while I'm at work.
I thought about robotic insects that look for dark places and are shy of movements, but don't really want cockroachs at home, even robotic ones.
So, any Idea ? (except of course a mac controlled Roomba, please...)
D.
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Apple has a 6% market share, and you're just paying for shiny.
Roomba's market is 2M units lifetime compared to industry 10M units per year, and their cost per pound is... yikes!
What a chump.
Give me a Eureka, some coax, a Dell Dimension, and a Wingman 3D.
Just thought we'd get all that out of the way.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Personally I think Sony should have kept the Abio pet dog going. Since the PS3 has WiFi they could create some kind of enhanced Aibo that uses the PS3 for for a second brain. It could capture all sorts of cool video's as it prowls around and it could even make a really inexpensive home security system that uploads pictures to the internet every time it detects movement in the house.
If you really insisted they could make some kind of cutesy push vacuum cleaner for it and do some light house work as well.
Sony engendered some ill will by not continuing to make the Aibo. They seem to put too much emphasis on the bottom line as opposed to customer goodwill. The Aibo was iconic and great overall advertising for Sony; now it isn't there to help support a rocky start for the PS3.
Letter To Iran
That made me laugh. Great hack!
The Bigger The Headache The Bigger the Pill
But a Dell configured with the same specs as a 17" MacBook Pro actually costs $500 to $1000 more and you have to deal w/ a bulkier case, no webcam, no remote, no FireWire 800 and an inability to legally run OS X.
There we go, now that's out of the way as well!
Wouldn't the Wii remote be a great remote for the Roomba? Image what you can do with the Nunchuk :-)
Why be content with just using one device to control another? Why not use one device to control another through a proxy?
Since the Wiimote can be used with OSX to some extent, perhaps someone could connect the two so that you control the Roomba by waving your hand around.
My Roomba was great when it worked. It's now been acting as a doorstop for the last 2 months while iRobot tries to find a friggin' battery. Yup, deader than a doornail, they've acknowledged the battery needs to be replaced under warranty, but they keep saying they're back-ordered. They're still selling new ones (and I assume they have batteries) but they're screwing their existing customers. I've recommended the Roomba to a bunch of people that have bought one but am now telling everybody who will listen to avoid the company. Avoid them until they can get their act together! .../Ed
The Woomba from SNL (saturday night live).
A real geek would build a Bluetooth interface into the Roomba directly.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Roombas can be controlled by Bluetooth, so every mobile phone can run them as a remote.
Lego can be controlled by Bluetooth.
Who's got my swarm app run from the phone in my pocket, for my army of Mindstorm Roombas?
Real robotwars, out in the streets, complete with exploding showers of Lego shrapnel...
--
make install -not war
Roombas can be controlled by Bluetooth, so every mobile phone can run them as a remote.
Lego can be controlled by Bluetooth.
Who's got my swarm app run from the phone in my pocket, for my army of Mindstorm Roombas?
Real robotwars, out in the streets, complete with exploding showers of Lego shrapnel...
--
make install -not war
You cruel, cruel, but funny person you.
Another cruel-but-funny-but-unfortunatly-not-on-tape story: some guys had an apartment, a couch, and a cat. Whenever they would turn on the vacuum cleaner, the cat would run into the living room and hide under the couch. Which had low hanging drapes. So one day they lifted the couch up and removed the wheels and set it back down. The couch sat a couple inches lower to the ground, but it was hard to tell because of the drapes. You know what happens next...they turn on the vacuum cleaner, and watch the cat race into the living room to hide under the couch and WHAM, runs straight into the peice of furniture rather than under it.
And lastly, a free cat picture. As a long time cat person and owner of two domestic short hairs, I feel bad for the cat, but damn that sign is funny.
Wait, one more video.
One of the newer AIBO robot dogs will do what you're looking for... But I wouldn't recommend spending that much on something you'd only use as a cat amusement.
The AIBO might be a good amusement for you, though, if you're at all interested in robotics. Great robot / sensory platform and there are several programming bases to build your own behaviour.
My refers to my cat as a digital, MIDI-esque approximation of my cat's angry "Reeeoow!" as that is what it heard as the name when it registered his face. It makes me giggle every time I see the plastic critter walk up to the cat and beep out a meow back at the cat.
One neat thing you can use an AIBO for though is as a remotely controlled walking webcam. I used mine to let friends and family take tours of my new house recently.
Oh well, now I sound like an advertisement. The good news is there are no more Aibos available and ebay prices have gone insane, so even if you wanted to you probably couldn't buy what I'm selling. Sorry!