Robot Swarm Control On Microsoft's Surface 106
zerOnIne writes "Dr. Mark Micire of UMass Lowell has built an intriguing new user interface on the Microsoft Surface, a multitouch-capable table computer. The interface is being used to control swarms of robots for disaster response, search, and rescue. One of the most interesting things about it is the intuitive tabletop joystick widget. Using a very fast hand-detection-and-identification algorithm, they can paint a touch joystick (dubbed the DREAM controller) directly underneath the hand. This joystick conforms to the size of the user's hand and tracks with hand movements, making sure that the control is always directly under the hand where the user expects it, even without haptic feedback. I've had a chance to go hands-on with this system, and I think it's truly remarkable."
Let me know when the price drops (Score:4, Insightful)
Still somewhere over $5k?
I'd love to build this into something... if I could sell it to someone other than businesses looking for a way to waste money.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a very, very cool front end. Where does it get the data in the real world?
I'm running a construction job with 3 contractors. Today they had 8 excavators, 3 backhoes, half-dozen off-road trucks, a water tanker, a vactor truck, and probably a few things I've forgotten. They were hammering up concrete, ripping down a building, tearing up a dam, and moving an incredible amount of dirt. They still managed to dump the dirt in the wrong place.
A webcam http://www.ci.springfield.or.us/millrace/images/ww.jpg [springfield.or.us] and a cell phone do more for me than this.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool as hell, but GIGO applies to this in spades.
I'd love to see a real application for this; not a simulation.
VIRTUAL robot swarm control on MS surface (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:RTS games? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Whats the worst that could happen? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is it just me? (Score:1, Insightful)
"swarm of robots" is frightening. There's a distinction.
Not as frightening if you are sitting at the controls
Mod This Shit Down (Score:4, Insightful)
It aired April 8, 2000, more than ten years ago. It got old. You're not funny or clever. You're not some kind of deep, cultured, worldly guy. You're some dude on Slashdot who's repeating something from ten years ago that was amusing but not all that funny in the first place. It was a bit funny back when that ugly fuck Christopher Walken said it and it was a new skit. It's repetitive now.
You might as well parrot another predictable, cookie-cutter, assembly-line Slashdot meme. The only difference is that it would be a Slashdot meme and not a pop culture meme. Nothin' personal. Just that Slashdot will be greatly improved when we stop celebrating this bullshit.
Re:Boooring (Score:5, Insightful)
"Surface" is yet another piece of slightly-interesting-in-theory-but-kind-of-meh-in-reality tech that microsoft has been trying to get people enthused about for ages -- and consistently failing. You know, kind of like tablet computers before Apple actually made people want them.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple suddenly teams up with Ikea and has every living room in the country computing with their coffee-table within 3 months though.
Re:RTS games? (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with RTS games path finding vs robot path finding is that the games have a flawless description of the environment (the description IS the environment) and no inherent physical limitations on the driven device, only ones programmed in.
Well, that and the utter LACK of any ACTUAL ROBOTS to guide. (Or those few that do exist are so damn expensive nobody can afford a swarm of three).
Oh, and those Surface tables... Those aren't exactly laying around anywhere either.
But overlooking that minor obstacle for the moment, the first thing that goes to hell when you actually NEED a robot swarm is that flawless environment description. And of course situations needing swarms never occur where you have maps, they happen annoyingly in some remote area, immediately adjacent to (but outside of) the area your funding covered.
Perhaps thats why the summary is so ga-ga about the joy stick simulation, because its the only part of this that seems remotely usable on Joe SixPack's touch screen device.
Re:Let me know when the price drops (Score:2, Insightful)
Surface uses infrared reflections to generate an image which is then processed. Alot of the challenge for a device of this type is the analysis of the IR, handling ambient light, and diffusion. If you were going to roll your own, I'd start with a project such as: http://digitalstratum.com/programming/ftir_build
or a similar FTIR method. However, if you just want multitouch, then you've got other options such as project based (search for wii whiteboard).
Surface provides a fairly substantial SDK with various multitouch controls, a simulator, and other such things. It also has a tag/barcode recognition system.
Re:Mod This Shit Down (Score:4, Insightful)
You might as well parrot another predictable, cookie-cutter, assembly-line Slashdot meme. The only difference is that it would be a Slashdot meme and not a pop culture meme. Nothin' personal. Just that Slashdot will be greatly improved when we stop celebrating this bullshit.
In Soviet Russia, cowbell needs more Natalie Portman!
Yes, yes, memes are lame. You're not some kind of deep, cultured, worldly guy for pointing that out. Being lame is sort of the point of memes. We're a bunch of lame nerds sharing a silly, arbitrary common culture. Sorry, but it's what we do.
Kirk would totally kick Worf's ass. Emacs > VI! Dr. Who is better than Star Wars or Trek! This is an ex-Parrot! Mandatory XKCD reference! [xkcd.com]
Yeah, it's all lame repetition of old stuff, some of which wasn't even that great to begin with, but, hey, that's culture for you.
Re:Is it just me? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm just not impressed.