brdavis

Embedded is nice, but there's a less subtle reason I did it as a direct link. With embedded YT videos, the viewer has no direct access to the "information" text... and if you look through my videos, you'll see that (1) I use that fairly extensively, and (2) lots of people ask questions that are clearly spelled out in the info text... either because they are seeing it embedded, or really can't read :). Perhaps I'll change eventually, just habit I guess. Nice simple embedding feature, however - thanks for the tip! -- Brian Davis

The thing is the cost; the camera costs maybe $90 retail, and a video goggles around $150 retail. That means an add-on virtual reality system like this should probably be commercially viable around $200 or so. Indeed, the "Spy Car" system I hacked for the single-eye LED screen cost under $100 all together (RC car, camera, controller, display). In the VTS car you posted, the only additions beyond that are a motion controller (we have that; it's called the NXT with a gyro or accelerometer) and two servos to control the camera. I'm really shocked by its price. What I'm talking about isn't a system designed into a single vehicle; it's a reasonably priced goggle-based virtual reality system and spy cam that can be retrofitted to anything" LEGO, RC cars, small airplanes, etc. If I can hack it in my garage for under $100, I'm amazed there isn't a nice production version for $200 all told... and I've yet to find it. As to posting this creation here - Absolutely! I put it out there so others could enjoy, post it where ever you want. A couple days after I put out the video it got picked up by some significant blogs, and you should have seen the YT stats fly. It seems there's a lot of overgrown kids out there who always wanted a functional LEGO tank :). Heck, if you want other outlandish creations, check out my LEGO recreation of a mechanical computer. Not sure if that's on-topic for you guys or not, but it certainly is one of the larger creations I've made so far: Huh, perhaps you're right - I guess I should announce some of these things here. I'm usually just over on LUGNET. -- Brian Davis

Thank you! It transmits the image at a high frame rate (looks like 30 fps) at 2.4 GHz to a small receiver. The receiver has two standard RCA outputs, video an audio, so you can plug it into most TV's in an instant, or plug it into a video capture card and display it on your computer (I've not tried the second, but I've seen something similar done). I ended up hacking a very small "eyepatch" display, so it's possible to walk around with one eye in a "virtual view", but I really need to improve it. Honestly, I'm surprised that sort of adaptation hasn't come out of the RC market (or LEGO itself), as it's amazingly fun. True, but it seems aimed squarely at the train market - cranking the speed up and down one 'click' at a time is perfect for trains, but not exactly what you want for treaded vehicles, and the fact that it looses its centering in some cases is an issue as well. I agree, better than the old remote in the ability to do fine control, but I'm going to have to play with one to figure out how useful it will be in this application. -- Brian Davis

Hi there. I'm actually the guy that put Ogre together... and I'm very pleased folks have liked it this much! Steve Hassenplug has been nice enough to host a webpage of Ogre here: http://www.teamhassenplug.org/robots/OGRE/ Which includes links to the video (and a time-lapse video of Ogre "self assembling"), and a link to the Brickshelf gallery with construction pictures... so now if you really want one, you can build it yourself :). I picked up the camera at a hobby store - it was being sold for model train folks to put inside their trains. It was about $90 US, which wasn't too bad... and a lot of fun on various models. It does not, however, interface with the NXT. It's just there to give a "ride along" view. It turns out Ogre actually is under better control when commanded by the NXT, because using the HiTechnic IRLink, you can control the PWM power settings on the PF motors (something you can't do from the small remote). Yes, I've got a lot of those spheres - bought in packs of 10 whenever I happened to find them on sale. I've probably got about 200 of them... in all likelyhood more like 300, with at least 100 lost around my house (the cats love 'em). I actually just shipped this to the FLL Festival in Atlanta, GA, a couple days ago... I couldn't go, but I suspect there will be hundreds of Zamor spheres bouncing around there in a week or so. -- Brian Davis