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Last Login: 4/22/2009 3:44:46 PM
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| *********************** PROJECT UPDATE ***********************
For those following this thread, I have updated this Project outline following some further research.
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Hi folks,
Here's the scenario: My 96 year old grandmother is now too frail to travel, but my brother is getting married soon and she would dearly love to be at the wedding over 100 miles away. Impossible problem? - Hmmmmmmmm Maybe not! I like playing with video and computers (in my 'day job' I am a BBC cameraman) and so my latest hair-brained project is born, behold: 'Operation Robo-Granny'
No doubt the military has probably already built several of these that shoot people in scary ways, but as I have much more benign intentions (and a budget several orders of magnitude smaller) I shall make do with something that looks more like WALLE than the Terminator.
Having read through some of the very interesting info on these boards, it seems that the VR920 might be just the job at the granny end and I think I have found a good contender from for the robotic platform at the wedding end. Here is the (updated) spec.
Stereo Vision will be provided at the remote (wedding) end by the Minoru 3D Webcam;
Stereo Hearing at the remote end will be via a Stereo microphone.
The Robotic Rover, Pan/Tilt head and remote telemetry Micro-controller processing will be achievced via the Arduino prototyping system;
Yes, I know she is going to get a view of the wedding comparable to a small rodent but we shall just have to hope that someone lets granny sit on their lap during the service, and anyway this is the Mk.1 dammit!
The Vuzix VR920 3D Glasses will provide Stereo Vision and Hearing at the local (Granny) end.
Granny's witty remarks will emanate from a speaker on the rover (mono via Skype or similar). From experience I know that hearing yourself via electronics after a short delay can be highly distracting and make speech almost impossible. It will be necessary to minimise the amount of reverse audio (Granny's voice through the speaker) that feeds-back into the main stereo mics - ideally through some clever electronic means, but probably just by careful microphone choice and positioning and speaker volume control.
A really cool thing is that when she hears Aunty Caroline talking to her left, Granny will move her (real) head to look to the left and her movements will be sensed via the VR920's motion tracker and duplicated via the pan/tilt head on the rover! So that Granny can mingle with the assembled guests she will control the Robotic Rover and glide around (or...er...trundle like a mini tank). A P5 Data Glove will control the Robotic Rover’s physical movement via GlovePIE software. She will move the Rover by simply pointing in that direction!
If the real Granny drinks a bit too much champagne, then embarrassing incidents by her Robotic alter-ego will be prevented via an infra-red collision avoidance sensor on the rover. The Robotic Rover (and all remote electronics) will operate from a WiFi wireless access point via an on-board Ethernet Converter.
The PC (A) at the local end that I already have is a powerful quad-core machine (running Vista) and will use the 3dtv.at Stereoscopic Player software.
The PC (B) at the remote end I need to purchase and its exact specification is yet to be confirmed. It needs to be as small and power efficient as possible to mount on-board the Robotic Rover. I have been unable to find a Linux equivalent of the Windows Media Encoder to stream ‘side-by-side’ Stereoscopic Video, therefore the machine will probably have to be a Windows based machine. It must include; USB 2.0 (for the 3D Webcam), Stereo Audio input (Analogue or USB), Mono(or Stereo) Audio Output for the Speaker and Ethernet. It will be important to try and keep the latency (delay) of all Video, Audio and Telemetry signals as low as possible. This may be a difficult trade-off due to the need for low latency against the need to buffer video when streamed across bursty packet networks.
Efficient use of bandwidth will be important and ideally 'graceful degradation' of video quality when sub-optimal bandwidth conditions exist. Bandwidth requirements for the local end and all potential wedding locations will be confirmed later following tests.
Ok, so many questions and much learning for me ahead. Any of your thoughts, suggestions, advice and experiences will be gratefully appreciated.
Regards,
Gadget-Ben
BBC Cameraman and amateur technology tinkerer
P.S. In case you were wondering, Granny and the wedding are real! Whilst I can foresee many other applications for this project, 'Operation Robo-Granny' is genuinely the first and will hopefully happen soon(ish) provided; (a) My budget and brain can stretch far enough (b) My Brother stays with his Girl and (c) Granny stays alive! |
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Last Login: 6/23/2009 7:11:02 PM
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| Gadget-Ben -
I think it's an ambitious and great project to embark on. I'm trying out something MUCH simpler - many years ago, I took off-the-shelf components and did my own very short-range telepresence - an R/C car, a wireless baby monitor camera, and a Sony Glasstron. Worked great, and then I put it away - for about eight years.
Since I just bought my VR920, I've brought the camera and car up from my basement; the NiCd battery seems to be working after all these years! The camera was already mounted on the R/C car and adapted for 9V battery use. I had to scrape off a little corrosion on leads, but otherwise it's still transmitting fine.
The only general suggestion I might make would be to be prepared to settle for compromises in order to really get it done. You could do monoscopic vision, for example, and save LOTS on bandwidth, cost, and complexity. Based on my experience, Grandma will be able to drive fine with no depth perception. On the other hand, getting stereo to work would be incredible. Same suggestion with sound - keep it simple - she may not even WANT to talk. Just having her there and able to move around would be very cool.
I for one will be following any posts you make for sure. |
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Last Login: 4/22/2009 3:44:46 PM
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| Hi Forrestwolf,
Thanks for your info. I have a pair of Sony Glassatrons! I tried using them as a 'Head Up Display' style viewfinder for my TV news camera a few years ago, but the only result seemed to be me feeling seasick and becoming a subject of much ridicule from the paparazzi who seemed to be photographing the Cyborg cameraman more than whoever it was we had all gone to photgraph.
Alas, it seems the burden of the techno pioneers is to look daft. They stayed at home after that until I tried using my Sony Aibo dog as a mini camera platform for a story about dogs. Unfortunately the organic dogs ran away from the robotic one, which rather defeated the goal of close-up doggy-cam!
Anyway, with regard to Robo-Granny, I would really like to try and crack the 3D remote telepresence as this appeals to me as the main technical challenge of the project. I can find little information on 3D Video/Stereo Telepresence other than some gimmicky (and expensive) teleconferencing rigs that aren't even true 3D. I think the fully immersive nature of true 3D Vision and hearing would make the whole telepresence thing quite interesting!
From what I am hearing elsewhere I may need to increase my estimates for bandwith to 10Mbps+, but that is not necessarily a show-stopper.
Anyway, you may be interested in this little beauty; 
Whilst it is only 2D, it is fully Wifi/Internet controlable and is due out soon. I love the way you can roll it in as a ball stealth style and can self-right before the camera pops-out!
http://www.gadgetvenue.com/spyball-wifi-robot-camera-01124417/
Regards,
Gadget-Ben
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