Friday, January 21, 2011

AllSeeing: back to the beginning...

In 2008 I found the RepRap project by searching for prototyping services. I was attempting to build a custom webcam mount just for the fun of it. Since then I have been deep into the RepRap movement and have started to make occasional videos about my research. Over my Christmas vacation I decided to take a step back and apply all that I have learned and all the tools that I have acquired and start designing and building a camcorder mount. Here is a shaky video of where I'm at right now with the mount. I had to film my camcorder, so I had to use my phone to take the video. :)



It still needs a lot of work but I hope you will agree it has already come a long way. So that's the first set of information that I wanted to share in this blog post. Stay with me while I switch gears. I found the following video last night. I smiled to see how much progress has been made by start-up companies in the area of robotics.



Now let's put these two things together. I'm just an average tech geek who built a 3d printer and likes to play with robotics. There are tons of people like me. The moment the people like me make the realization that [building printers] and [using those printers to build robots that pick up your dishes and put them in the sink] share comparable complexity is the moment the robot will become just another tool in the tech geeks tool box.

"Whacha doin' this weekend?"
"Oh, I'm just designing an upgrade for my drink bot. It dropped a glass last week and I have a feeling I need to increase the range of motion of its thumb."

On a final note, Forrest over at Technocratic Anarchist was working on a robotic hand last year. Cool.