RoboCommunity - Latest Articles

WowWee Rovio Light Modification Kit

Praha_rovio — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:21:16 GMT

Another solution to increase the lighting on your Rovio, this time with an external kit.

Digital Graffiti & The Cinemin Swivel: Portable Art In Motion

RoboCommunity Team — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:36:19 GMT

Recently, the Digital Graffiti Art Festival was held in Alys Beach, Florida - attracting over 1,400 visitors, who flocked to the festival to witness the newest revolutions in digital artistry. Digital Graffiti, also known as "photon bombing" or "urban projection," is a relatively new form of artistic expression using images projected on the side of buildings. No spray paint needed, of course! In the photo above, you can see how digital projection can completely transform the facade of a city street into a brightly lit canvas. Aspring craftsmen and women even attach projectors to their vehicles for a "mobile" photon bombing machine. The photo below is even more stunning - a building has literally been converted into a living "pipes" screensaver. The WowWee Cinemin Swivel picoprojector, developed with Texas Instruments technology, was a sponsor of this awesome forward thinking art gathering. The Cinemin Swivel promises to revolutionize portable projection, enabling you to take your movies and television shows with you anywhere you go. Learn more about the Cinemin Swivel. The Cinemin Swivel also opens a world of opportunity to create a new art movement - call it whatever you like, but we like the sound of "pico-graffiti." Artists could carry...

WowWee Rovio Video Tutorials

WowWee Robotics — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:45:03 GMT

Check out the official set up videos from WowWee Robotics, and get your Rovio ready to rock and roll!

Robie Sr. and Omnibot - A Blast From The Past

Lady Royce — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:36:29 GMT

11 year old robots are unearthed and resurrected - say hello to some old friends.

Preview of WowWee FlyTech Hoverpod

Peter Redmer — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:05:24 GMT

Get a sneak peek at the new Hoverpod racer from WowWee.

Hacking a Better Elvis (Part I of 3)

Evilis — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:44:51 GMT

The previous series of articles on this Robocommunity site on establishing a way to drive the Elvis Alive bust from a PC are useful but it becomes a peripheral which can do nothing without being attached to a PC with what amounts to a RS-232 umbilical. This also loads down the PC such that running any other other processes could affect the playback of the animation sequences. What I plan to do in the next three articles are to make the "PC Elvis" more like the Elvis Alive bust, only better! Unfortunately the Elvis Alive personality is removed in the process but then there are so many other personalities waiting to come out! Improvements To the Original Hack The goals to be achieved with this upgrade are as follows Still maintain the capability for a PC to send the individual animation commands via the RS-232 link. This will still be used as before to create animation sequences. Add the new capability to have the microcontroller drive its own movements and play its own audio, triggered by a single command on the RS-232 link. This opens the door to allow the PC to function as a higher level "brain" that monitors...

Control your WowWee Femisapien from a Robosapien Remote

Peter Redmer — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:51:52 GMT

You cam use the WowWee™ Robosapien™ remote controller (included) to control Femisapien. The remote controller requires 3 x “AAA” size batteries. To install the batteries, do the following: 1. Open the battery compartment located on the underside of the remote controller using a Phillips screwdriver (not included) to remove the screws on the battery compartment cover. Insert the batteries according to the diagram. 2. Ensure that the positive and negative polarities match the illustrations inside the battery compartment. Replace the battery compartment covers and 3. replace the screws using the screwdriver. Do not over-tighten. Shift levels The remote controller has 3 shift levels. You can change levels by pressing the Select button. The LED on the remote controller indicates the shift level as explained in Table 1 below. IMPORTANT: After you send a command the remote controller will reset to Shift level 1. That is, if you require Shift level 2 or 3, you need to select the shift level each time you send a command. Remote controller functions The control functions for each level are explained in the following table (Table 2). NOTE: Right refers to Femisapien’s right and left refers to her left. Quick Links Learn More About...

Femisapien Wrist LED Hack: Turn Them Any Color You Like

SeanF — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:59:30 GMT

I found Femisapien's red wrist lights didn't quite suit her, so I decided to replace the LEDs with something a little more fashionable.