Nao Line Following using distributed processing

Caxisa, a member of the Nao Developer Program, has released a video of his first C++ project. The line following program is distributed across a local module running on Nao and a remote module. The line following algorithm runs on Nao and the rest of the processing is via the remote module. It is a great example of the distributed processing approach available on the Nao platform.

Nao Speech and Video Recognition

I have to admit I am having a lot of fun working with the Nao Robot on the Developers Program. The Nao software provides a platform that allows really rapid development and lets you achieve very satisfying results in relatively short timeframes.
To this end I have been playing with both the speech recognition engine and the video recognition engine. Both are standard features of Nao and when combined offer a great way to interact with the unit. As an experiment I decided to try and write a simple game for my two and a half year old nephew. He always likes to play with my iPad when I see him and he particularly likes an app I downloaded for him that shows, among other things, farmyard animals. With this in mind I have managed to create a basic game where Nao will ask him to find a picture of a particular animal and show it to him. We have yet to see if he likes the game as it was only finished, in its most basic form, this evening but below is a short video of one of my test sessions.

Expressiveness Maketh Man?

I was considering some of the more intangible elements that make robots acceptable to us as a human society. Some of it is obviously usefulness, but I believe much is based around the anthropomorphic qualities we can imbibe into our mechanical companions. The last blog entry 'Digital Comedy' touched on this and, in all reality, was the catalyst for my train of thought.

If we look to the work already being performed by the developers that are part of the Nao Developer Program, there are already some fantastic example of anthropomorphic behaviour being developed. A personal favourite is the reluctant video star at Carlitos Contraptions.