Popular Post Aristos Queue Posted May 22, 2012 Popular Post Report Posted May 22, 2012 I do believe that some days the Marketing Forces Of America decide to target me personally, as they did about three months ago when I first saw the Cubelets video online. Cubelets are like the physical manifestation of Actors: cubes that each do their own action and pass messages between each other using dataflow buffers to create robots! So, I quickly ordered a set, because that's what you do when personally targeted by MFOA -- you don't want to make them angry. They arrived today. And, oh yes, they're neat. I had a couple false starts, but quickly built up the basic "come to my hand" robot. Shortly thereafter I had a robot running around, capable of turning to dodge my hands and flashing light patterns. But I quickly ran into the LEGO problem. You know the problem: You *never* have enough LEGOs. In this case, within a half hour of playing, I found myself wanting two inverter blocks, and I was "hacking" using a flashlight block as a data blocker block. And fifteen minutes after that, I had exhausted the permutations available with my limited set. Why must the coolest toys be so expensive?! Check out the price list! http://www.modroboti...vidual-cubelets And then, I realized the answer to that question: it's hardware. Physical matter costs. And I looked at my cubelets, and I looked across at my laptop, which had on screen the cube control of one of my actor classes. Looking from one cube to the other, I realized just how lucky I am that nature made me a software engineer instead of a mechanical engineer. And then, my next thought... "Hm... perhaps we should start charging $25 per cube? If people are willing to pay so much for hardware cubes... and, hey, the software cubes are *reprogrammable*!" But then my cat started chasing my cubelet robot, and I realized this is the one area that the software just cannot compete, and I guess that justifies the hardware price: no software actor is going to have my cat pouncing quite so adorably. So I guess it's better to keep the software cubes priced like an all-you-can-eat buffet: buy LabVIEW and get all the cubes you want. And I'll just dream about the day when we *finally* get reprogrammable matter. And then we'll see software *can* keep cats on their toes! (Side note: When one of the hardware cubes receives two messages simultaneously, it averages the messages. I wonder if there's any way a feature like that would be useful in a software actor framework? Add it to the brainstorm list...) 3 Quote
crelf Posted May 22, 2012 Report Posted May 22, 2012 Come! See cubelets! I love that guy Hmmm - maybe NI could pitch in to give away 2 cubelet KT01 Robot Construction Kits at the LAVA/OpenG BBQ*? *and maybe you could talk to the people that "randomly" draw the prize tickets? Quote
todd Posted May 23, 2012 Report Posted May 23, 2012 Have you seen Reactable? http://www.reactable.com/products/ (youtube links in there) They have hardware and software versions, though both rely on a screen. If only each Sense and Action Cubelet could be turned into a Min, Max, Blocker, Passive or Inverse Cubelet when touched with a "Be This Instead" Cubelet. Or touch an Inverse to the business side of a Sense or Action to change it's behavior. Quote
Aristos Queue Posted May 23, 2012 Author Report Posted May 23, 2012 Todd: In theory, later this year the makers of Cubelets will change out all the logic cubes for a new style that allows bluetooth to change which instruction each cube represents. Includes ability to put custom logic on drive cubes, etc. But that would mean buying a new set of cubes... *sigh* Quote
curiouspuya Posted May 23, 2012 Report Posted May 23, 2012 This is all so inspiring! We need a hybrid toy robot crossed between Cublets and Mindstorm so that we can reprogram the cubes to do new things using labview. Quote
mike5 Posted May 23, 2012 Report Posted May 23, 2012 Phew! For a moment there I thought this is gonna turn into a lolcat thread . Luckily it went the other way. Quote
Darren Posted May 23, 2012 Report Posted May 23, 2012 Damnit, Stephen, stop showing me expensive things that I want. Thankfully, Cubelets are so over-the-top expensive that the practicality of putting food on the table immediately overrides my normal impulse of reaching for the credit card. Now, if they were about half that price, I don't know if I could control myself... Quote
Aristos Queue Posted May 23, 2012 Author Report Posted May 23, 2012 I wouldn't have bought them either, Darren, if they hadn't been cube shaped. You're just lucky that MFOA didn't add the tag line "and they'll make you a faster LV programmer." :-) Quote
SteveChandler Posted June 6, 2012 Report Posted June 6, 2012 Has anyone ever read Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology by Valentino Braitenberg? Quote
Yair Posted November 9, 2012 Report Posted November 9, 2012 I ran into another similar concept, but one which looks more practical - littleBits. There's a nice TED talk where the creator demonstrates how it works - http://www.ted.com/t..._and_teach.html Quote
Cat Posted November 14, 2012 Report Posted November 14, 2012 Hmmm - maybe NI could pitch in to give away 2 cubelet KT01 Robot Construction Kits at the LAVA/OpenG BBQ*? Did you all do this at the BBQ? The kit is currently out of stock. Probably a good thing for my budget. Quote
crelf Posted November 15, 2012 Report Posted November 15, 2012 Did you all do this at the BBQ? Unfortunately no. Although VIE gave away some Ardhuinos Quote
Aristos Queue Posted November 16, 2012 Author Report Posted November 16, 2012 I had two sets at the BBQ for folks to play with, but I did not give them away. :-) Quote
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