EDDIE gets press.....Parallax doesn't....
mindrobots
Posts: 6,506
I couldn't find Parallax mentioned as the source for purchasing EDDIE....or as the developer for EDDIE...or at all (unless my ctrl-F missed it).
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/2011/09/19/a-robot-in-every-home-were-getting-close/
Of course, they did mention "As the story goes, Gates formed a robotics team under the leadership of Tandy Trower, now of Hoaloha Robotics, which drew on the resources at hand to tackle two large challenges facing designers......"
Oh, Kinect got mentioned....and MRDS....no Parallax, no Propellers, not much about the robust, standard robot platform.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/2011/09/19/a-robot-in-every-home-were-getting-close/
Of course, they did mention "As the story goes, Gates formed a robotics team under the leadership of Tandy Trower, now of Hoaloha Robotics, which drew on the resources at hand to tackle two large challenges facing designers......"
Oh, Kinect got mentioned....and MRDS....no Parallax, no Propellers, not much about the robust, standard robot platform.
Comments
In any case, I think mentioning Parallax with the EDDIE robot to most audiences is a bad idea. Parallax is an unknown, and hence a risk. Microsoft may not be loved by all, but it does have a good name.
edit: mentioning Parallax in an article for the hobbyist market is fine, although EDDIE isn't a Parallax product so much as a Microsoft product manufactured by Parallax.
Cody, they do mention Parallax and it's not a "bad idea" because we are an unknown company. Here you are with the two leaders of the Microsoft Robotics Studio http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/A-Look-At-Robotics-Developer-Studio-4-Beta - check minute 5:00 and listen to them say "we are working with Parallax, a very well-known company in education and hobby robotics". I don't agree with your point that it's a bad idea to mention Parallax. More mention of Parallax at 7:30 in the same video.
Ken Gracey
What would give you this idea? Microsoft's aim is to encourage manufacturers, like Parallax, to conform their product to meet the specifications they have for a "standardized Kinect-based robot."
Go: http://www.microsoft.com/robotics/
and click on the robots link. None of these is Microsoft product. Their statement "We encourage third-party hardware vendors to build hardware kits according to our specification" doesn't mean they've assumed ownership, especially since all these robots will work without a Kinect or Windows. Which is good because Eddie doesn't come with either.
-- Gordon
I'm not sure how being an unknown company is will support the product marketing. By explicitly stating that this was "contracted out", Microsoft loses the confidence that homogeneity in the product line brings.
Don't get me wrong, I like Parallax as a company but I don't think it would be appropriate to mention them in the linked article. If the article was on Make.com, sure, but not Scientific American. Wrong audience.
Page 2 of the reference design is particularly amusing: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=228540
The way that EDDIE is being marketed is as a robot for RDS, not as a stand alone robot. Sure, it can be used without laptop but there is nothing to indicate to those outside the field that you don't need the laptop. Even the terminology on the Parallax EDDIE page supports this: "The entire base is controlled over a simple USB connection and convenient open-source command interface." And of course, the only program that works with a USB controlled robot base is Microsoft RDS.
What does that have to do with Eddie being a "Microsoft product"? Does this mean a keyboard designed for use with Windows is a Microsoft product? (That would be news to me, because I regularly use a "Windows" keyboard with my Mac.) Really, I'm trying to understand the logic here. You said Eddie is more a Microsoft product than a Parallax product. Eddie is an existing product (Madeusa) conformed to Microsoft's specs for RDS and Kinect. After taking the time to ensure conformance, is there a reason they wouldn't want to market and promote the features of Eddie as being an RDS-ready base?
Sorry, I don't get this comment. Maybe you meant to suggest something else. Are you saying the Eddie page says it's ONLY for RDS?
No one who has the skills to work with Eddie or Madeusa will be under the misconception that the laptop or Kinect is required. If you're talking about some layman buyer for a university or research institute who has followed the link from Microsoft's site so they can make the purchase, so what?
Or maybe you're thinking it would benefit Parallax to point out on the Eddie page that it's possible to use Linux and a Kinect hack from Hack-a-day, rather than Windows and RDS. In this case I don't think it wouldn't help Parallax's business association with Microsoft, and those who have the skills to build and use a Madeusa/Eddie know this already. Google doesn't keep this a secret.
As for not mentioning Parallax in the SA article, it's neither wrong nor right to do so. This particular writer chose not to. That was her decision, but it wouldn't have been "inappropriate" if she had. The fact that Microsoft teamed with a well-regarded hardware firm in the field of educational robotics -- a primary market for RDS -- instead of doing it all on their own could have served as a story point. She elected to talk about something else. I have no doubt other writers will make their own editorial decisions about what to cover, and some may mention Parallax, and some may not.
-- Gordon
Now the question is: What writers do we know that have / can write about Parallax stuff? hmmmmm......
Let's start a list!
erco!
Whit!
Gordon!
Who else? (you know who you are) - speak up!
-Matt
Well, as you know I was prohibited from mentioning Eddie to anyone, made even harder by the cruel Mystery Project thread. Now that the cat's out of the bag, the Make review is already amended.
Now just waiting for that *other* product to be officially announced...
-- Gordon
More? I'm sure there is, speak up :-)
-Matt
http://www.cvl.isy.liu.se/news/meet-eddie-the-robot
Expandable
Development
Disk
for
Innovation
and
Exploration
EDDIE out there.......I'd bet on that!!
There's a lot of "Matt's" out there too, but only one ME!
-Matt
@mindrobots: I personally like the acronym, though I'm not quite sure what the "Expandable Development Disk" is. Are they referring to the robot, and lowering it's status from "advanced vision robot" to "disk" though the means of the title?
Microcontrolled, Bill Hennig, Phil , OBC, Nick, erco, Whit, Gordon...
More?
-Matt