Robie Jr. Update: If I Only Had a Brain....

So months have gone by... oh ok, more than 18 at this point... since my initial post about my work resurrecting Robie. However, soon after that post I quickly realized the limitations of the Arduino setup in terms of doing anything I would find interesting and so Robie went back on the shelf. 

Now I have Pi.... a Raspberry Pi B+ in fact. 700mhz arm computer with 512MB of RAM running raspian linux. Amazon had a kit for sale that included all the essentials to get rolling and quite a bit more for farting around with it for $80.

In the last few nights have have:

• Successfully setup the Pi (pretty much comes ready to roll)
• Setup VNC access from my mac
• Built a couple of perl scripts on the Pi to make noise on an attached speaker
• Loaded Arduino dev on the Pi from my Mac
• attached the Arduino from my earlier tinkering to the Pi and tested out an accelerometer
• rooted and installed Cyanogen mod to my old Nexus 7 tablet... no I do not know exactly what I intend to do... Animated face? Additional Source of data/storage/processing power? Alternative main brain to the Pi? 

My to do List:

• Attach Camera Module to Pi
• Take picture and access from Macbook (not via VNC)
• Stream Video to VLC on Mac
• Connect Arduino back up to Robie Motors
• Have Arduino Motor control originate from Pi program (Python?)
• Have Pi stream motor status to Mac (start of telemetry...)
• Have Pi accept motor control inputs from Mac 
• Stream accelerometer data back to Mac via Pi
• Connect Ping sensor up to Arduino
• Ship data to Pi
• Ship data to Mac
• Connect Servo up to Arduino
• Control from Pi
• Control from Mac Via Pi
• Build Pan/Tilt solution for ping sensor(s)
• Connect Nexus 7 (or more likely 4... think the 7 is just an expendable test bed) to Pi
• Access nexus 7 accelerometer status? Stream via App? 
• Use Nexus 7 camera ? 
• Animate face for Robie ? 
• Play Robie sounds through Nexus 7
• Connect Robie speaker up to Pi or Arduino
• Play Robie sounds 
• Rig Robie Contact points for original sound effects
• Design new Robie sounds... can Pi OCR and Pi Cam combine to let Robie do Text to speech? 
• Pi OCR from Pi Camera to generate Text sent to Nexus 7 Google powered Text to speech routine?
• Design and implement all above into Robie chassis or alt base solution? 
• Scavenge Roomba Drive system? (probably need beefier motor control solution....)
• Design new arms\Gripers in sketchup with micro servo's and linear actuators in mind... 
• Start working on integrated wifi based tele robotics interface for running Robbie via WiFi from Mac
• Develop Autonomous Routines for navigating\mapping the house
• Add sensors for routine mapping of House status
• Temp
• Humidity
• ??
• Build charging base
• Wirelss? 
• Solar? 

Kind of a rough layout of components I ultimately want to integrate inside Robie:

Yes, I know it is quite possible to run all the stuff hanging off the Arduino directly from the Pi via the GPIO pins. But then I'd have an arduino gathering dust :-) I have a parrallax propeller board sitting around as well and it may get incorporated at some point. On a more serious note, I am rather interested in the complexities of interfacing multiple compnents like this. 

Given my general pace of progress on Robie through the years I imagine I should have this done by the time I am 50... which means I am more than half way their already :-) Though in all seriousness I actually may keep fairly steady progress on this for a while as I think I have answers for how to get through most of the above list with bits and bobs I have in hand. The Raspberry Pi really is a marvel in terms of what it makes possible for such a low cost. As such it represents something of a "missing link" for my long term crazy thoughts with regards to animating my old buddy. If I actually do manage most of this the end goal is not a cheesy toy upgrade... I do have a notion to put together a bit more serious rover. Robie Jr. just makes for a fun test bed that lets me make good on some ideas I have had bouncing around in my head for a loooooooong time. 

Space Warriors vs Space Camp

So I recently watched... well suffered through... Space Warriors. And it got me thinking. Was it really so bad? I mean I loved Space Camp but that was before I grew up, moved to Huntsville and actually started working in the Space Program. Perhaps I loved Space Camp because I saw it when I was a kid and couldn't pick it apart on 1000 technical details and now I am just to grown up to enjoy a movie like this. Though I don't think so. I can pick apart Space Camp a good bit... but I still like it. I suppose the thing that gets me about this movie is there is no key critical 'swallow the blue pill' moment that gets you on board. I mean I will set aside the atrocious acting. I liked the original Highlander for gods sake, I can overlook some cheesy lines/delivery and awful special effects. But the setup here just doesn't jibe. Space Camp had two real moments you had to swallow. First was that they would ever let kids sit in an STS during a static test fire (heck not even sure a full up static fire like is depicted is even real...). Second, was that given such an event was some odd confluence of events could lead to the control team deciding launching was the only option to save the kids. The first is pretty easy movie fare... the second took some divine intervention courtesy of the AI robot in the original film trying to fulfill his friends wish. Swallow those two moments and the rest of the movie makes some sense and has some logic to it even in its absurdities. The initial bit was actual Space Camp, the post bits were 'how do we get out of this mess now that it happened'.  Space Warriors??? Not so much.

I suppose the other thing that bothers me with Space Warriors vs Space Camp is the actual regression in movie magic thinking. Somehow in 27 years we go from a robot with intelligence and kids actually in space to a really expensive puppet in Robonaut (product placement for GM???) and kids running remote avatars from the ground. The kids taking the place of the adults in this film just does not work as well as the earlier Space Camps decision to generate an 'accident' that pushes the kids into an extreme situation where the only path is 'through to the end'. This is one case where I think Hollywood would really have been better off just remaking a movie instead of coming up with this steaming pile of dog poo. I'll hand some credit to Josh Lucas for trying to make something out of nothing, but as a coach of mine used to say, "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken S#!T".

It was fun to see stuff from Huntsville on the screen, including the ISS payload control room that I have spent so many hours in. And I will hand it to them for using a relatively realistic idea for putting station in danger (space debris hit).

Can't resist a few callouts on the sillyness:

BCC (back up control center) does use a control room in Huntsville. It does not use the one shown in the movie though that was an easy choice to make for movie making (the backup room is much less interesting looking). When activated it is staffed by the same people that operate the main MCC (Mission Control Center) FCR (Flight Control Room) in Houston. Communications with Station run through White Sands... so if BCC is activated it doesn't matter what happens in Houston with regards to station communications. Thats the whole point of having the BCC in the first place.

One of the key plot elements in the movie is the idea that the main character "Crunches the numbers" and comes up with information the adults don't have. My question isn't how he could be that smart, but what data was he crunching? Even if I suspend my disbelief for a moment on the issue of the kids taking over for the adults I am scratching my head as to how they would access station environmental data in the first place... or become so familiar back to front with station procedures? Where Space Camp used the massive ground support team and  'NASA' as a reason to believe how kids could be supported in an emergency (not to mention they had an astronaut with them) Space Warriors uses the "All adults are idiots and kids have to save everything" method of movie magic. Or put another way... The ground team role in Space Camp was in many ways less amazing than the real life Apollo 13 mission support effort. Space Warriors path is just complete and utter nonsense.

The random robotic EVA suits. I mean if the suits were there why wasn't the crew (or ground controllers) using them? Even if they where not using them to do their own repairs they could have been using them (or the crew EVA suits) as a source of life support... which brings me to the last thing I will bring up (though far far faaaaaarrrr from the last issue with this turd of a flick)...

What the hell was with having the crew be so damn passive in this? They damn near didn't even have them speak. Astronauts. In. Mortal. Peril. are apparently doing nothing to try and alter their own fate. For most of the rest of the stuff they gave reasons (bad and horrible ones... but reasons) for why the kids were taking over. They never really give a reason for the crew being on the sidelines in this story.

I mean really that is just scratching the surface with this one. If you are looking for fun space movies to watch with or for your kids (or the kid in you) then I'd highly recommend the '86 Space Camp, Space Cowboys, or even Mission to Mars over Space Warriors.

I normally hate chewing apart issues in movies without suggesting alternative solutions. Perhaps one day I will take a stab at this one, but right now all I can come up with is pretty much going back to the drawing board.

Review: Amazon Fire TV

So I ordered a Fire TV pretty much as soon as the order page went up from Amazon after the reveal. It has since joined our Apple TV, Google Chromecast and PS3 on our living room TV.

The Good:

Amazon was not kidding about it being fast. I wouldn't say it is night and day compared to the Apple TV but it is very noticeable. Especially when going back to the Apple TV after using Fire consistently for a few days. Load times are extremely rare.

The best part about the Fire in comparison to the Apple TV for us has definitely been the improvement with the remote. I now hesitate to deal with the Apple TV interface unless I do not have an alternative on the Fire. This has cost Apple sales from me as I now buy on Amazon first and iTunes second for video content. I know Jobs had a fetish about reducing buttons. But the Apple TV remote control has gone to far in the minimalist direction. It also really should go to a bluetooth or wifi based connection with the device. The fact TVs have not generally adopted a remote control solutions using bluetooth or some other non-line of site solution in place of IR as a standard is beyond me. Why apple went IR with their hobby and have yet to update it is a source of much head scratching.  Of course we still try and point it most times... some behaviors are hard to unlearn.

The So So:

The voice search capability is a tease. For the content it covers it is awesome and the recognition/speed is very impressive. However, the lack of integrated search across multiple streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu in addition to Amazon's own content is very frustrating.

The Interface. In comparison I'd say the fire interface is on par with Apple TV... but that is damning with faint praise. It puts your stuff on screen to scroll through in various pre-determined categories. Big miss in that there is no ability to easily limit search results to prime. Confusing also because Prime playback in some cases will have a price tag even if you get it via Prime for no cost. Look for the "prime" banner on the content thumbnail. As long as it is there you are ok. Also if you keep your PIN required for purchases you cannot accidentally get charged.

Games. I got the controller and I have tried some titles. The best I encountered by far was the Walking dead title. basically because it plays like a show and requires mostly decision making than button mashing. Some of the more action based titles I tried were not so hot. Limited device storage makes more complex but significantly large games like Grand Theft Auto 4 problematic. For basic puzzle games I am sure it works great. But it is not really a playstation/xbox substitute that is for sure. Expect gen 2 of this device to address some of this. The potential for this capability is high, execution is still lacking though. Potentially fatally hamstrung by the device limitations though.

The Bad:

Lack of storage. Mostly this is only an issue with games. Streaming may solve this in the future, but the implementation here really isn't there yet. Putting it here because they definitely upsold the gaming capability, but in reality the anemic storage hamstrings the capability right off the bat sans a solid game streaming solution.

Lack of integrated search. First device where I can do a search that returns all options available for me to watch covering free,rental (with cost),Purchase (with cost) that launches the show/movie directly from the search results in whatever capability has it will probably see me unhook other options.

Lack of open connectivity with non fire devices for stuff like screen casting etc... One of the primary uses our Apple TV still gets is casting video via airplay from an iPhone or iPad. Amazon could have supported chrome cast for iOS and Android devices and still had a more powerful second screen capability exclusively for its fire devices. This is a silly and greedy limitation which ultimately alienates any customer that doesn't buy into their complete device ecosystem. Considering the recent release of their phone it is possible they have delusions of being able to present a serious challenge to the iOS/Android eco systems. But they have a LONG way to go.

Wrap Up:

This is a very solid device. On balance I like it considerably more than the Apple TV but we have too much iOS/iTunes inertia in our house to retire it. For anyone looking into an internet set top box I recommend it. Especially if you are already invested in Amazon online video content or otherwise uncommitted to iTunes or Google Play content. I know at launch purchase of one of these also got you either an extension on your Prime membership, or granted you prime membership for a year. If that is still the case and you use Amazon for any shopping needs it is a no brainer.