As all inventor one should have an assistant. I wanted one like IGOR but as I don't have any hunchback friends and have no plans of digging up corpses and building my own so I went for a FEZ Domino approach in stead.
This is more of an audio / visual installation than a robot but it's quit fun.
It contains;
- FEZ Domino .NET micro framework based microcontroller
- FEZ Music Shield for the audio
- A proto board to hold the RTC battery and hook everything up
- 2x PIXAXE 08M for the two brain halves with lots of LED's
- A PIR sensor for motion detection
- A center RGB LED (this will be hooked up to a light organ later on to pules in sync with the sound)
- A PIEZO as a vibration sensor (stolen from the kids McDonald toy)
- A LDR to react to sudden changes in light
- Some Yes / no buttons to respond to IGOR's statements (pressing them frequently really pisses him off)
- A volume control for the sound (this is handled internally in software)
- A frequency control on how often one want a statement
So what does it do?
It sits on my desk and monitor monitor movement and vibrations (+ the buttons). And based on the time of day, day of week and general mood it issues statments accordingly. For now I have 16 different modes like; work day mornings, weekend mornings and afternoons, evening, night, fast dark, fast light.. etc. There are also some general statements and useless facts also.
So if I just sit here at my PC and work IGOR will keep quiet. If I move around and the PIR sensor picks me up it will issue a statement based on the current mode and frequency setting. If I bang on my desk doing some work IGOR will react after a certain threshold. If I turn of all the light he will react. If he sits in the dark and the lights come on he will react.
The audio is based on prerecorded mp3 files. It could probably be done by a speech synthesizer but I feel that the quality isn't all that great. So I have a database that currently holds about 200 statements related to the 16 modes. They are converted to mp3 files via http://www.ivona.com/en/ (I can rebuild and update my statement pool in under a minute). As the files are stored on the FEZ Domino SD card I can hold thousands of statements and sound effects.
The build.
I started out with a plastic light fixture sphere.I wanted a seampunk style so I added some Sugru http://sugru.com/ to get some riveted bands around the sphere. Added some Sugru around where I wanted the flashing brain to be and painted the whole thing in brass.
There are quit a lot of 3D printed parts. Each brain half has a holder that is glued to the inside. The front RGB is mounted at the end of a funnel to give it depth inside the sphere.The sphere holder, PIR holder and panels are also printed and painted. The box it self is plywood and have a steampunk console feel. The speaker and amplifier is the one from Pringles that is given out for free in exchange for 3 Pringles lids.
I still have some programming to do and the light organ but apart form that IGOR is pretty much operational. And I must admit quit fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICL0wnAW-88
In the worst case just ripp off his