Tony is a Geek

As explained here:   http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/internal/courses/int-robot/2015/notes/concepts.php ROS is a  message-passing  framework which allows you to create fully-fledged robotic systems quickly and easily. Rather than writing a single, large program to control the robot, we run a number of smaller, process-specific programs ( e.g. to analyse images from a camera ) and run them side-by-side, passing messages between them to share data and other variables. The core component in ROS is called a Node: Each Node performs a particular process, such as processing sensor data or controlling a laser scanner. You can think of them as code modules. However, rather than calling a Java method to get the robot to do something, we  publish messages . Messages are published on topics , which are like separate channels.  Nodes subscribe  to these topics: Whilst one Node publishes messages on a certain topic ( for example, robot movement commands ...

Making some great progress with ROS , RPi3, PCA9685 and a couple of HK 15298s and some Python code... (and yes, Jelena is just "resting" in the background) I'll write-up the notes from the center of the desk a little later.  Small steps, but certainly moving in the right direction!

A great article on what I see as the "Next step....." https://sdtimes.com/ibm-expands-ai-research-support-aging-population/ “For the first time ever, there are more people over 65 than under 5,” Keohane said. “There is essentially a shortage of care providers. If you look at this demographic shift across the globe, this is why a company like IBM is interested in looking at aging. What does the aging demographic shift mean for our clients? We’re in every industry and every one will be impacted.” By combining IBM’s IoT and health care research with their Watson machine learning, Keohane says that the effect this shift will have can be broken down in such a way that it will benefit everyone from the elderly in need of improved care to businesses, now more aware of their customer base. “Aging isn’t a disease,” Keohane said. “We’re all doing it. But it does have impact on health. So could we surround ourselves with emerging technology in the home, while ...

Sometimes we just consume.  Sometime we create.  Sometimes we listen. Sometimes we combine all of the above. If you've ever listened to Faithless 2.0 and thought, "Hey, I can do that" ( no, it's not as easy as it looks/sounds ), if you have time & insomnia then yes, you can do something creative, fun and potentially get the party jumping.... maybe you're gifted like my mate Leigh , and can just do it: For us mere mortals you need some tools: https://www.reaper.fm/ Cthulhu :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7udIKin9zVI and you might need a dose of Omnisphere (my mate Andy swears by it!) Get creating..... Some of these scenes look familiar:

After a couple of long nights, a lack of appetite and a fair amount of headaches, I finally have something meaningful setup as a framework/platform to build on for the new robot called T1ll13 - it's a new (Millennial) species, so it needs a new type of naming structure. (It's short for Matilda) (this is not T1ll13 - just a stock photo) I originally went the RPi3 route of installing Raspbian/Jessie and then attempting to build upwards from there to install the ROS, as explained here: http://wiki.ros.org/ROSberryPi/Installing%20ROS%20Kinetic%20on%20the%20Raspberry%20Pi All would seem to work okay, until it got to the rosbag install and it would fail, with no sensible way of recovering....trust me, I tried. I even went backwards a version to the Indigo, but still had no joy: http://wiki.ros.org/ROSberryPi/Installing%20ROS%20Indigo%20on%20Raspberry%20Pi ....that just gave me issues at another point further down the line. Not being one to admit defeat, I adopted my ...

"we are diamonds taking shape" "woohoo"

Whilst I like the Poppy robot, the cost of £4,500 just for the actuators blows it out of the realms of affordability - (hey, I have a custom car that eats all my money!), now, if I didn't have the car I would probably have bought this kit already .... yeah, that'll set you back about £8,500.  Whilst that is about a 1/3rd of the cost of a commercial robot, I'm not looking to invest that much just yet... My aim was to not spend time on the "small" £500 robots that you can get from the likes of EZ Robot which are pretty cool in their own right, I like the fact this robot is modular and allows you to change and extend it as you want.  But, I want to make something that is about child size, 4foot or so.  That's why I was liking the Poppy.  Legs can be a problem (like the Poppy) and whilst I'm not too fussed about spending a lot of time getting leg/weight/balance co-ordination right, I would rather have a bottom half that is more Pepper like . (Next t...

https://github.com/poppy-project/poppy-humanoid/blob/master/hardware/doc/en/assemblyGuide.md

Coming on October 31st......    " 95 Theses " INTRODUCTION THESES "This website is part of a wider project in public engagement. My long-term academic interest has been in public understanding of technology, and in particular popular understanding (and misunderstanding) of the Internet and digital technology generally. I like the idea of using a ‘thesis’ as a way of starting off a discussion. Long ago, this was a standard way of conducting scholarly debates. I thought it would be interesting to try it again as a way of sparking public interest in what digital technology is doing to us . We’re in the early stages of a radical transformation of our information environment. It’s happening on a scale that has only been matched once before in history — when Johannes Gutenberg invented printing (or at any rate re-invented it in Europe). The print revolution transformed Western society and shaped the world in which — at least until recently — most of us grew up. ...

.......My creative brain has been going overtime the past couple of months (okay, I'll admit since 2001, but formulating since 2010....) and soon, very soon, it's going to over-spill into something awesome....... I'll share, when mind transforms into matter and reality.... until then here are some things to distract the mind .................................................................................... ....................................................................................