goeiegenugtig

This video clip managed to induce a new stream of thinking in my one tracked mind and it’s all about Artificial Intelligence. Honda’s latest version of Asimo (a robot that can walk, run, carry stuff and do a ton of other handy things) now has the ability to reason! It can look at objects, analyze the characteristics and based on that determine which type of object it is. I seriously want one, but I’m waiting for the price to drop – at R10 million, it’s still a bit pricey for me. There’s always the NEC’s Papero, which goes for about R40 Large, but it’s like a big paperweight that sings annoying songs.

I wish I had the cash to buy Lego Mindstorms NXT. It’s programmable Lego, with servo motors, a light sensor, ultrasonic sensor, touch sensor, sound sensor and a 32-bit micro-controller. I can still remember some of the awesome stuff I built using simple blocks and wheels when I a kid, so I can just imagine what one could do with this set! Go to their website and see what amazing stuff people are building with it.

Your creations are programmed with the help of Lego’s version of NI LabView, which is used in the industry to program all different kinds of consumer electronics, although this is a scaled downed version with drag and drop functionality so you basically drag a loop icon instead of programming a loop etc… Another cool thing is that the firmware is open source and there’s tons of API’s out there for almost any language you can think of!

The best price I’ve found so far is at KiddiWinks (based in Rondebosch, Cape Town) for South African shoppers, if you’re interested. But maybe you want to wait for Version 2.0 coming out in October this year?