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Windows Mobile robot - WiMo - helps to test new Windows Mobile APIs May 14, 2006 [General] | By Edward J. R. Windows Mobile robot - WiMo - is not only powered by Windows Mobile but also controlled by Windows Mobile phone: 
If you expect to get a Windows Mobile robot that would do cleaning, washing, vacuuming, etc you must wait yet a couple of years: WiMo is a robot but it is just a prototype designed out of a Microsoft Smartphone to showcase/test new (yet not published) voice command APIs in Windows Mobile: WiMo uses a Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone as the central "brain" of the robot. This Smartphone sits directly ontop of a Windows Mobile SDK cd (I did say i was using the SDK in a fun and unique way). The Smartphone communicates to a microcontroller via Bluetooth, using our Managed Bluetooth classes and also communicates with a Pocket PC (and soon to be desktop pc instead) via WiFi. The Pocket PC can be used to remotely control WiMo. The action pad of the Pocket PC is used for standard movement (up, down, left, right, stop). WiMo has 2 "modes": Personality mode and camera mode. When WiMo is in personality mode, the Smartphone's screen is facing forward and displays a picture that represents WiMo. Right now this is just any photo that I send down to the Smartphone from the Pocket PC. When in Camera Mode, WiMo rotates the Smartphone to face it's camera forward and starts streaming video using DirectShow. This allows you to see where you are going (although it can be fairly difficult to navigate with this tunnel vision). Eventually I will use Managed Direct3D for the personality mode, giving WiMo a more dynamic personality. I'm also planning to use the camera mode for computer vision so that WiMo can start to figure things out for himself (aka be autonomous). WiMo is learning to make conversation and respond to voice commands via some new prototype APIs in Voice Command. These APIs are not available yet, but we are looking to make them available in the future. WiMo can respond to his name, tell jokes if asked, and even dance! To read more about this Windows Mobile robot click here. To watch video with presentation of this robot click here.  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 2 Comments ]
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