Next step is for someone to hook this to the top of their car and teach it to autopilot.
A driverless car is not exactly a new concept...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driverless_car
Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
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Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#12Maybe this was obvious, but I would like to point out that I did call it (sort of): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1894708
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#13Next step is for someone to hook this to the top of their car and teach it to autopilot.
A driverless car is not exactly a new concept... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driverless_car
Turning your own car into a driverless car for less than $200 would be quite novel. (I don’t think the Kinect is ideal or all that useful for this task, it would be very revolutionary if it were, though.)
Price is important. Price can be the only thing that’s different about something and it can still be revolutionary.
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#14Next step is for someone to hook this to the top of their car and teach it to autopilot.
I doubt it, last time I checked the kinect had a very low range, below the 4m mark I think, If you stand too far away from the sensor the magic fades away.
A nearsighted self-driving car you say? Where's the harm in that? :)
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#15Next step is for someone to hook this to the top of their car and teach it to autopilot.
It doesn't have any arms - how is it going to hold a cellphone?
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#16Why does it have a rangefinder? Isn't that essentially a sub-function of having a Kinect on board?
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#17The article claims this is "the first iRobot to finally use SLAM". See Gerkey's Create+Hokuyo SLAM HOWTO from March 2006, predating this "first" by 4.5 years. http://www.ai.sri.com/~gerkey/roomba/index.html Also, since the Create was designed and sold for exactly this kind of thing (it is a Roomba without the cleaning guts and with a published external control protocol), how is this a hack? Sigh.
As a hack, it might not be as impressive as something Woz might have done "in the day". But something very important is happening. A pre-made vision system was bodged onto a pre-built robot chassis and used with already existing software. It was fast, cheap, and relatively easy.
The robot Altair is nearly upon us. The robot PC-XT is likely not far behind. The mother of all tech-bubbles will be right behind that.
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#18Here's the thing; this seems amazing. The big question is, what is the killer app?
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#19Next step is for someone to hook this to the top of their car and teach it to autopilot.
I doubt it, last time I checked the kinect had a very low range, below the 4m mark I think, If you stand too far away from the sensor the magic fades away.
infrared. This is why Grand Challenge cars used lasers, video, radar. No infrared, and ultrasound didn't succeed as well.
Re: Hacked iRobot Uses XBox Kinect to See The World, Obey Your Commands
#20Why does it have a rangefinder? Isn't that essentially a sub-function of having a Kinect on board?
The Hokuyo device is a linear scanning laser rangefinder with much better accuracy and range than stereo camera + texture projector (like the Kinect) sensors are achieving. It costs around $2000. That device itself was a revolution when it was released since previously everyone used SICK LMS devices at $20,000 each. Now most labs and some undergrad programs can afford the Hokuyo. The Hokuyo is less accurate than the SICK, but it's good enough for many purposes and, hey, it's affordable. The Kinect gives relatively noisy and and low-resolution data, but it's another order of magnitude cheaper AND it's 3D. More choice for the well-off and a whole new world for those without big research grants.