Pleo Hacks: "XBee" and "Spy Cam"

[moardin]

GRIP is a multi-professional workgroup of Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg / Germany. On our homepage we present two tutorials which might interest the Pleo community:

The described XBee hack allows the user to get informations on the actual internal state of Pleo and send commands to control Pleos reactions. It is based on a first version of PleoPet. Without his help, this tutorial would not have been possible. Thank you very much!

The second hack uses a small RF-spy cam to transmit the image data of what Pleo "sees" to a PC where it is processed.

The combination of both hacks might lead to interesting pattern recognition solutions like orientation or face recognition (s. IC-Hexapod). We are anxious to see, what the the community will make out of this.

Here is the link to both tutorials:

http://www.grip-online.com/en/pleo_hack



All the best,

Martin

[sarusani]

Cool! Thank you very much for the tutorials. I think I'm going to try some mods myself...

Regards,
Kim

[Patrkc]

Very, very impressive! Thanks for sharing!!

[mweed]

I love the details of the photos. One of the best views of the inner workings!

[junkroxy]

it's amazing! but very complex! Thanks!8-)

[pisymbol]

Man I was going to post this....very cool....didn't know what XBee was until reading this hack.

[Falseprophet666]

First off...Once the spy cam is installed, its transmitting to the pc, right? So does that mean that none of the data Pleo sees is processed? I can see the applications for this, but I hardly think its worth taking Pleo apart like that for. This is how Pleo's die.

[moardin]

That's right. The original camera of Pleo is flipped to the inside, so all Pleo "sees" himself ist black. But when we keep Pleo running on his own, there is not a great difference to his normal behaviour. You can try this youself by covering the camera (not the IR-sensor!) with e.g. some black tape. So - even if it was major surgery - our Pleo is feeling quite well and not at all zombie-like ;-).

Martin

[1mpleo]

Lool,.. '

[PleoPet]

> ...but I hardly think its worth taking Pleo apart like that for. This is how Pleo's die.
(commentary / stating the obvious)
The GRIP modifications are very well done, and as you can see in the very detailed tutorials with photos.
The final result is an enhanced Pleo that looks like a regular Pleo. This is very hard core. They require a heck-of-a-lot of work and risk to your Pleo.

If you want the same functionality without the work, buy a small webcam, and duct-tape it to the top of the head. It will transmit the video to the receiver (a PC RF box or a TV set or something similar)
For the XBee modification, slap the XBee module on the bottom of the robot. http://www.aibohack.com/pleo/xbee_pleo.jpg
No need to take the Pleo apart or remove the skin.
Functionally the same as the internal mods, much easier, only not as pretty ;->

[Falseprophet666]

I meant that Pleos die when amateurs start opening them up to make modifications like what these fellows had done. Plus, how would a better camera help pleo if it isnt even hooked up to him? Is the camera supposed to send him signals?

[mweed]

The idea would be for the camera to send the image data back to a PC using the XBee. The PC would analyze the images real time and send instructions back to the pleo via the XBee. Thus, the PC would be enhancing the capability of the pleo by offloading some of the CPU intesive work. Things like face recognition could be done on the PC for pleo.

[Falseprophet666]

I see now. Thats very clever. Is anyone trying this now?

[Allosaurus]

That's pretty cool, eh?

[lesodell]

cool keep up the good work

[darmawan_setio]

in germany is hard to find xbee.....i hope i can find it....because our fellow in bamberg, he has xbee

[moardin]

We bought our XBee 802.15.4 (Formerly Series 1) Starter Development Kit w/ 2 XBee Modules at Atlantik Elektronik:

Atlantik Elektronik

The development kit is not listed on Atlantiks webshop, just phone them.

All the best,
Martin

[darmawan_setio]

We bought our XBee 802.15.4 (Formerly Series 1) Starter Development Kit w/ 2 XBee Modules at Atlantik Elektronik:

Atlantik Elektronik

The development kit is not listed on Atlantiks webshop, just phone them.

All the best,
Martin

How much in Atlantis ?

can i used part like in Radio control

we already meet in IFA,thanks for the Information do you have, i hope you succesful with new Project about face recognition.

ick drücke die Daumen
mfG

[Allosaurus]

I meant that Pleos die when amateurs start opening them up to make modifications like what these fellows had done. Plus, how would a better camera help pleo if it isnt even hooked up to him? Is the camera supposed to send him signals?

You do have a good point, about Pleos dying.

[lesodell]

cool i am watching this