Gaze following robot

Here is another example of how the NXT can be so much more than just a toy. A group of researchers from Technical University of Denmark and the IT University of Copenhagen have built a robot that goes in the direction that you look.

Here's how it works; You sit in front of a computer that has sophisticated eye tracking software (that's right, it knows where you're looking!) It then sends commands via wifi to a robot that has it's own laptop. This laptop then calculates how much power needs to go the motors, and sends appropriate commands to the 2 NXT's onboard. These then drive the motors appropriately. A webcam connected to the laptop streams back video of where the robot is travelling.



I'm thinking it might be possible to bypass the onboard laptop completely, and have the main PC send commands directly to the NXT. You could then put on a cheap wireless video camera to give you the robot's point of view.

--
Damien Kee

Comments

Anonymous said…
Here are the links to the explanations on the authors' Web sites:

Mobile laptop computer robot 2

Eye movement control of remote robot
Anonymous said…
If this technology was added to PC shooter games, that whould be an incredibel development!
Damien Kee said…
Thanks for the extra info Alexandre.

Just wondering if you think it might be possible to do away with the laptop?

You could send Bluetooth commands directly from the PC and just have a cheap wireless camera on board?

damien
Mike1 said…
I was also wondering, why not just use a PDA with WiFi connection? You can send PDA a WiFi command and it would calculate and translate to the NXT via BT. The camera could be the PDA's or another WiFi camera.
Anonymous said…
Yes sure, for shorter range, it is possible to use a direct communication via Bluetooth without the laptop. I do that for some testing.
I have not tried with a Wi-Fi camera (I just do not have any yet), but it should perform even better.
It should also be possible to use a PDA/telephone with built-in camera.
Anonymous said…
Very cool.
Very, very cool.
Very, very, very cool.
In fact, FREAKIN' AWESOME!
:D

One thing, though, would two heads interfere (woah, that sounds weird!). I mean if someone else was watching you with their head craned close to yours. Which eyes would it look at?

Pe-ads
David Levy said…
What's the likely of a future NXT system being incorporated with Wifi?

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