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Robotics Businesses Apple

Mac Book Pro as Roomba Remote 44

Posted by Hemos from the send-arnold-back-in-time-to-stop-this dept.
adelord writes "Alpha Geeks have a new do-it-yourself project to terrorize the cat with: use Perl with a MacBook Pro's Sudden Motion Sensor to control a Roomba. Wired's Cult of Mac cites the original site which has other fun ways to pimp your Roomba . This gets my award for most inefficient use of tech, time, and training for the week. It won't freak out her cat nearly as much as a RoboRaptor on Roam mode. "
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Mac Book Pro as Roomba Remote More

Mac Book Pro as Roomba Remote

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  • It's a Mac article (Score:5, Funny)

    by BadAnalogyGuy ( 945258 ) <BadAnalogyGuy@gmail.com> on Monday December 11, 2006 @08:00AM (#17193142)
    It's a Mac article, but there's so much text-based scripting my head asplode.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by prencher ( 971087 )
      However many times I read this comment it refuses to make any sense to me.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by adelord ( 816991 )
        However many times I read this comment it refuses to make any sense to me.
        Try to type a first post after your head has "asploded"- it can't be easy.

  • I had to check it out ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by joe 155 ( 937621 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @08:20AM (#17193276) Journal
    A roomba is an automatic hoover,

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba [wikipedia.org]

  • I can see this (Score:4, Funny)

    by joshetc ( 955226 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @08:24AM (#17193312)
    As a viable, inexpensive alternative for the general public to control their Roombas
    • Alternative to what? kicking your roomba in the right direction? Really, what do you mean, are there any other roomba remote control options that cost even more than a $2000 Macbook? :)

  • Palm Pilots are Great Roomba Pilots, too! (Score:5, Informative)

    by FunkeyMonk ( 1034108 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @08:52AM (#17193532) Homepage
    This isn't my own work, but I use my Palm Pilot to control my Roomba!

    Download codes here: http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/search/search .cgi?Match=1&Terms=roomba [remotecentral.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Fred_A ( 10934 )
      What's wrong with you ? So cheap that you use a lowly $200 Palm ? Couldn't you at least fork out $1500 for a Vaio to control your Roomba ? You are not worthy of controlling your Roomba ! :)
    • Roombas can be controlled by Bluetooth [google.com], so every mobile phone can run them as a remote.

      Lego can be controlled by Bluetooth [google.com].

      Who's got my swarm app run from the phone in my pocket, for my army of Mindstorm Roombas?

      Real robotwars, out in the streets, complete with exploding showers of Lego shrapnel...

  • Robotic Cat Toy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by da5idnetlimit.com ( 410908 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @09:02AM (#17193618) Journal
    As this part of the story is the only one that is remotely of interest to me (Mac Controlled Roomba ! Wow ! at last ! my dreams are fulfilled ! and I can now die at peace knowing humanity has reached its peak !)

    Do any of you know of a robotic toy to amuse the cat ? The Roboraptor Robotic Dinosaur is very nice, but it lacks the ability to going back on its feets on its own. Knowing my cat, I think i'd have to reset it upright every 5/10 seconds.

    I'm looking at something that could be "autonomous", can stand upright by itself, and is more or less cat-proof so my cat can have something to play with while I'm at work.

    I thought about robotic insects that look for dark places and are shy of movements, but don't really want cockroachs at home, even robotic ones.

    So, any Idea ? (except of course a mac controlled Roomba, please...)

    D.

    • I'm looking at something that could be "autonomous", can stand upright by itself, and is more or less cat-proof so my cat can have something to play with while I'm at work.

      Well the Robosapien v2 can wander autonomously and right itself from a prone position, but you're never going to find something that will a) keep a cat that entertained, b) have battery power to last days. You're better off hooking some laser pointers to something that spins and fires them randomly at the wall.

    • I had a whole bunch of self-righting cat amusers in the house that my cats absolutely loved playing with, but now they've eaten all the mice. These days I'm just letting them play outside, but I don't know what I'll doo when the trees run out of birds.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by businessnerd ( 1009815 )
      I've got a great do-it-yourself robotic cat toy that will keep your cat occupied for hours on end.

      All you have to do is tie a piece of string from a ceiling fan and turn the fan on the low setting. The string should be long enough so that it touches the ground when hanging from the fan.

      Cat's are notorious for rejecting any "toy" that cost you money unless it is laced with massive amounts of catnip.
      • You cruel, cruel, but funny person you. [youtube.com]

        Another cruel-but-funny-but-unfortunatly-not-on-tape story: some guys had an apartment, a couch, and a cat. Whenever they would turn on the vacuum cleaner, the cat would run into the living room and hide under the couch. Which had low hanging drapes. So one day they lifted the couch up and removed the wheels and set it back down. The couch sat a couple inches lower to the ground, but it was hard to tell because of the drapes. You know what happens next...they turn

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by g1zmo ( 315166 )
      Another cat?
  • Apple has a 6% market share, and you're just paying for shiny.
    Roomba's market is 2M units lifetime compared to industry 10M units per year, and their cost per pound is... yikes!
    What a chump.
    Give me a Eureka, some coax, a Dell Dimension, and a Wingman 3D.

    Just thought we'd get all that out of the way.

  • Personally I think Sony should have kept the Abio pet dog going. Since the PS3 has WiFi they could create some kind of enhanced Aibo that uses the PS3 for for a second brain. It could capture all sorts of cool video's as it prowls around and it could even make a really inexpensive home security system that uploads pictures to the internet every time it detects movement in the house.

    If you really insisted they could make some kind of cutesy push vacuum cleaner for it and do some light house work as well
  • That made me laugh. Great hack!
  • Wouldn't the Wii remote be a great remote for the Roomba? Image what you can do with the Nunchuk :-)
  • Why be content with just using one device to control another? Why not use one device to control another through a proxy?

    Since the Wiimote can be used with OSX [slashdot.org] to some extent, perhaps someone could connect the two so that you control the Roomba by waving your hand around.

  • Who cares about the Roomba anyway? (Score:3, Informative)

    by ewilts ( 121990 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @12:09PM (#17196256) Homepage
    My Roomba was great when it worked. It's now been acting as a doorstop for the last 2 months while iRobot tries to find a friggin' battery. Yup, deader than a doornail, they've acknowledged the battery needs to be replaced under warranty, but they keep saying they're back-ordered. They're still selling new ones (and I assume they have batteries) but they're screwing their existing customers. I've recommended the Roomba to a bunch of people that have bought one but am now telling everybody who will listen to avoid the company. Avoid them until they can get their act together! .../Ed
  • The Woomba [youtube.com] from SNL (saturday night live).
  • Roombas can be controlled by Bluetooth [google.com], so every mobile phone can run them as a remote.

    Lego can be controlled by Bluetooth [google.com].

    Who's got my swarm app run from the phone in my pocket, for my army of Mindstorm Roombas?

    Real robotwars, out in the streets, complete with exploding showers of Lego shrapnel...

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