Low-cost video chat robot | Hacker News Reader

Low-cost video chat robot

hackaday.com

36 pointsztan25 comments

I've posted mine before but in stories that didn't get many views. Putting up a build log has been on my todo list forever...

Mine is based on the Asterisk open source pbx and a Grandstream video phone for the real-time 2 way video. It is controlled via DTMF and doesn't require a computer to operate, just a phone. Full telepresence if your phone is a SIP phone that does video.

Also cost about $500 to build but probably took me much longer as I built my own drive system and motor controllers.

Here's a video of my homebuilt telepresence bot in action : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMZkd8YMgzw

For what its worth, I don't consider hacks like these "Anybots killers", more like homage to heroes of mine. I'm a big fan of TB and the Anybots team and can't wait to see what they come up with next.

I admit guilty of using the phrase "Anybot killer" in the title as link bait. I did it to catch attention. I did not mean any disrespect to Trevor or the Anybot team. As some one who is also interested in robotics, I'm actually a great big fan as well. I would love to know what their thoughts are of this and the seemingly emerging trend that it is getting easier and easier to DIY robots out of commodity components that can almost rival their commercial counterpart's functionalities at 1/30th the cost.

This is the same guy that made the awesome wiimote 3d goggles (TED talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.h... )

EDIT: Added TED talk link.

He was hired by MS and worked on the Kinect team afterwards.

Johnny Lee has put together and shared some amazing work. I remember really enjoying his Procrastineering articles.

He was my hero back when I was in grad school.

I could never figure out how he funded his experimentation. I had to beg for 50' ethernet cables (unsuccessfully, I might add). A set of wiimotes would have been completely out of the question. Maybe they got better stipends at CMU and he bought his gear on his own dime.

Stop using the term "killer." Please. I see that this is ztan's second submission, so it seems in appropriate to blame him, but for the good of the community I refuse to upvote sensationalist linkbait titles. The article had a title, it was "Low-cost video chat robot," and that is appropriately descriptive.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. But do you not think forcefully changing the entire title without any warning and removing my editing privilege is a bit of overkill for a single word that YOU found to be offensive? You could have simply asked me to edit it, and I would have changed the title in a fashion that did not use the word "killer" and still reflected the relevant Anybot connection. Currently if you do a search for "anybot" in Google, the first link is a story about this DIY bot with a picture of Johnny Lee.

... do you not think [it] ... is a bit of overkill for a single word that YOU found to be offensive?

No, I don't. The value of Hacker News is in the self-moderation that we all make to keep the signal high and the noise low. But, you've jumped the shark in this case because I am not an admin and didn't edit your title. So evidently there are at least TWO people who found your title to be in need of rewording.

Anybots isn't going to be killed by a netbook strapped to a Roomba. Trevor et al are doing fundamental engineering for creating large, capable, humanoid robots. The Roomba won't even work on shag carpeting, let alone cary a payload over terrain. The real Anybots killer, as with statistically all startups, is the current lack of demand for humanoid robots. Without a demand for its product, a product company can't last forever.

But I still wouldn't call that an Anybots "killer".

I think you are missing the point of my question. I do not have a problem with the removal of the word "killer" from the title. It was more or less a tongue in cheek tactic to attract attention. I (and I would think most HN readers) do not actually believe that this DIY bot would "kill" Anybot. The problem I was trying to pointing out is that someone went around the normal democratic system (up/down votes) HN provides to moderate signal to noise. I can understand in extremely offensive cases there would be a need for admin to step beyond the normal democratic system and lock/remove/edit a thread. But do you honestly and without the slightest reservations believe that this is such extreme case? If so what is the problem that you see with my suggested alternative, where I am first asked to edit the title myself before it is forcefully changed without any warning or explanation? Additionally, do you think removing my editing privilege to prevent further changes is really necessary? Finally, what is your opinion on the idea of free speech, where anyone can say anything about anything without the fear of someone coming to forcefully change/censor their words?

Whoa... what's with the title edit? That's a far cry from "[refusing] to upvote". This is borderline admin abuse.

</rant>

People on HN are likely to have heard of the Anybot due to its connection to YC (one of AB's founders being a YC partner). Referencing it in the title is perfectly relevant, since many on HN can relate to the term "Anybot" but few can relate to "video chat robot" (which, incidentally, sounds like some sort of automated chatroulette client).

</reason>

[edit it's -> its]

Whoa... what's with the title edit? That's a far cry from "[refusing] to upvote". This is borderline admin abuse.

Which admin are we abusing? And, why are you accusing me of rewriting an article title when I'm not an admin? More importantly, it is perfectly reasonable for an admin to edit a title to be less sensational.

(Some <reasonable> other stuff)

I specifically said that we shouldn't call anything "* Killer". Not sure what you're going on about.

For some reason my link bait-ish "Introducing Johnny Chung Lee's $500 Anybot killer" title was changed (censored?) to the current one and I can no longer edit it.

For those who don't know, Anybot is YC founder Trevor Blackwell's other (main) company. They are currently shipping a telepresence bot for $15000. (And my understanding is that the bot does not currently support two way video?)

Also, Yuri Milner used the Anybot for the Startup Fund announcement to all the founders in the YC office.

http://anybots.posterous.com/

It's a good demonstration that the balancing complexity of the Anybot is really unnecessary in a domestic kind of situation with a flat floor. I expect telerobots to become quite commonplace, and as this video shows quite well building one is only a weekend project now, whereas in the past it would have been more complicated and expensive.

This is much better than the $15k Anybot. I can't figure why they put such a tiny screen on the Anybot. The face on the screen needs to be visible from a distance after all. Ideally the screen should be big enough to fit a face at 1:1 scale. Or was the design goal "one-way" telepresence?

QB is a telepresence robot, the goal is to transport your presence to somewhere else. The best way to do this is by creating an "avatar", which is a symbol for someone being remotely present. When you get closer to it, you can see exactly who is being represented by this avatar. If you think of it from the social robotics and symbolic interactionism (sociology) point of view, it is one of the most beautiful TPR solutions out there to date. Hope that helps illuminate your question! :)

It always amazed me that Avaya, Cisco and other Telepresence companies have not built one of these.

Yes. All of the technology hurdles had been overcome five years ago, and I've been ranting about the imminent arrival of practical consumer telerobots for quite some time. Today the technology is a no-brainer, as this video shows. There are also completely untapped telerobot business models which are just waiting for the hardware.

We have an anybot, and it's worth it for the levity it brings the office. You should also follow our robot on twitter.

http://twitter.com/#!/raelbot

Do you think this $500 DIY bot would give a similar level of levity compared to the $15000 Anybot?

If the floor is flat then yes, probably. The main advantage of the balancing mechanism is in moving over bumps. The Anybot is so expensive because it's a first generation kind of device manufactured in low volumes, and probably uses high end cameras or PLCs. $500 is a more reasonable cost, and I expect that if a large company mass produced them then the manufacturing cost would be much lower (similar to Kinect Vs other laser/TOF sensors).

this was posted before, but didn't get much attention:

Robot Orders a Scone in Mountain View, Ca. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4FshiMu3U

(yes, anybots...)

Soon after an iPad2 with camera arrives, I'd expect similar units to be available as an iOS-dock accessory.

Somebody call Anybots. There's a new resume for them to review.

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