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Amazing i-SOBOT & WiiMote Mash-up (Video)

We absolutely love the Wii system, and have gotten pretty good at using the WiiMote for Wii-Tennis and Wii-Baseball. And, we really love the i-SOBOT humanoid robot. So, a real killer application would be to control our i-SOBOT using the WiiMote. Wouldn't that be totally awesome?

That's exactly what Robert at RobotsRule.Com thought. He's in the final testing stages of Release 4 of his popular RoboDance robot control software package, and has totally integrated i-SOBOT control into the package. It will come complete with advanced gesture recognition, easy program creation and storage, and enhanced voice recognition allowing the i-SOBOT to respond to over 140 different voice commands.

Robert plans to release a 'pre-test' version of the software package distributed before Christmas, and the final formal release by the end of February 2008. Here's just a short summary of the cool features he's built into Release 4:

• Allows you to control an i-SOBOT robot using WiiMote buttons for directional movement and WiiMote + Nunchaku  gestures for combat commands (Gesture Recognition).
  
• Has gestures for all 35 of i-SOBOT's combat commands (Punches, Kicks, and Guards).  In the video I only showed the simple ones so as not to confuse people.  But it's a sophisticated gesture system as you will see when you get the full "pre-test" version.  Some of the more advanced gestures are comprised of 3 separate arm movements which the system handles easily.  The system uses an advanced transformation system that feeds a neural net classifier that does the pattern recogntion task necessary to classify gestures.
  
• Has a complete virtual training room with videos for each gesture, a scoring system, and is completely controllable from the WiiMote so you never have to sit down to touch the keyboard or mouse during practice.
  
• Any command in i-SOBOT's command set can be attached to the WiiMote buttons.  Scripts can be triggered by the WiiMote buttons too.  Also, scripts are interactive and you can pause a script to take temporary control of the i-SOBOT, perhaps to line him up to pick something up or punch a friend, and then have the script resume at a button press.
  
• Skype integration.
  
• The voice control system gives you voice control over all 147 of i-SOBOT's commands (157 minus the 10 built-in voice commands.
  
• You can control multiple robots if you have the USB UIRT controller.
  
• Scripts can controlling multiple robots which can interact and send messages to each other, creating a very thick illusion of interaction between robots.
  
• Robodance also supports almost the entire WowWee robot with the most notable exception being the Robosapien RS Media.
  
• And a ton more. 

Somehow, in spite of his demanding schedule, he found the time to  put together a short video highlighting all the new functionality:

Posted by Lem on December 14, 2007 | Permalink | Email this post

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