Nao Reads Appointments From a Google Calendar
by Carl on the 08/08/2011 21:05:20
As a brief update on some of my project ideas for Nao (which I mentioned in my last blog post), I have prototyped access to Google data via the gData API. Using the Google Calendar as a test bed, Nao can access the secure, private calendar feed and read appointments out via his text to speech sub system. There is more information after the break but here is a short video.
The Google gData API provides a python based SDK. With some minimal modification, it was possible to load this SDK into a Choregraphe behaviour. Choregraphe being the graphical development tool provided by Aldebaran Robotics for Nao. Once loaded you can import the Google API modules into the python control scripts used in Choregraphe behaviours. This allows access to the data in a number of Google services via Nao's inbuilt wifi internet access, providing access to things such as calendar appointments.
The prototype in the video is really a proof of concept and over the next few weeks I will be refining this into the base project for a Nao Personal Assistant. Initially, this will allow calendar appointments to be read but in the future I hope to expand this to cover a number of different Google services and I am hoping I may even be able to get Nao to read me my Google Docs.