baudot

Today the news is that my maker crew just got comped 2 tickets to the Hardware Innovation Workshop. Now we just have to talk them out of two more tickets so that all four of us can be there. It's at PARC. That's the lab that invented the network connection you're reading this through now, and the ideas that Apple turned into the first macs.

Excited? More than a little.

We got invited for a handful of projects. But the one we're showing off most for this conference is some hacking we did with the Sphero, getting four of them to run a racetrack from XBox controllers. The first version of that code was turned out by a fine gentleman at Microsoft, and I've had a good time over the last week upgrading it to run lots of Spheros at once, putting in speed controls, and generally pushing the limits on what these little guys will do. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was building the racetrack.

The Sphero is an impressive little piece of hardware. It's got a full inertial measuring unit in a baseball-sized robot, with more precision on its gyros than the ones in commercial airliners. It's also a ton of fun.

Here's what it looks like when the president drives one.

The code to run many spheros through a single computer I just got working tonight. We started inventing different games beyond the racetrack almost immediately.

I don't sleep much anymore, but life is fun.

Edit: Video of when we first got the multiSphero controls going: