Idea Book - ScanBot Video and NXTLog

I recently made a video of ScanBot, the robot I contributed to the Idea Book. You can see it below or in our Videos section. ScanBot scans black-and-white pictures using a Light Sensor, and displays the scanned images right on the NXT Display Screen: you don't need any special computer applications to run ScanBot or view the images he scans.



You can also see a NXTLog of ScanBot here.

-Jonathan

Comments

Andy said…
I saw it a couple days ago, really cool! ;-D
Fay Rhodes said…
That's a wonderful video, Jonathan!
Rick Rhodes said…
Jonathan,

Excellent video!

Rick
Micah E. said…
One of the coolest LEGO video's I've seen! Not quite on the same level as Brian, but he's using Mac, so you're excused:-)
For teachers and students - Jonathan provides the full program and instructions for this robot in the book - after reading and working through it, you'll be amazed at how your skill level jumps - especially when it comes to variables!

Jim
Anonymous said…
Jonathan,

Amazing resolution! Can you tell a little how you get this level of accuracy? Since the light sensor is hardly 'point-like' detector, I find the final outcome amazingly accurate.

Guy Ziv
Brian Davis said…
Very nice video, Jonathon - I loved it (music, time-lapse, and all). I too am impressed with the resolution, nice job!

--
Brian davis
Anonymous said…
From somebody that bought the book all I can say it go buy a copy. It is worth it. I agree with Jim that the program for this robot is superb. Purchasing the book will encourage more books like this. Hopefully from the same group!!!

Blake

P.S. I have also found the chapter on BT to be top notch writing. I have not built all the robots yet but having examined the programs for them I have to say that this is probably one of the strongest books out there with beginner, middle, and advanced users all coming away happy.
Thanks everyone, I'm glad people enjoyed it!

Guy,

I didn't use any fancy techniques other than putting the sensor close to the paper and taking measurements frequently (that tone you hear as the Light Sensor moves across the paper is actually a series of short beeps - one for each time a measurement is taken). Also, the user can set the threshold between black and white, to compensate for different lighting, shadows, etc.

Since the light sensor doesn't measure tiny portions at a time, it isn't too good at picking up small spaces between black lines. However it works well for semi-basic shapes and large letters.

-Jonathan
Anonymous said…
I constructed a scanner from instructions posted a while back built by kevinsquest. His scanner produced a grayscale image once uploaded to a pc program. Once the light sensor settings were tweaked this scanner produced a surprisingly good grayscale image. For some reason his scanner instructions were pulled from the site.
Jonathan, your scanner looks interesting and the video is cool !
Anonymous,

Yeah, I saw that scanner... kevinsquest is really good at robots. He took his robots off the website, though, because someone was sending him nasty e-mails.

-Jonathan
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