Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
Use a hand held TV to give robot a simple face. — Parallax Forums

Use a hand held TV to give robot a simple face.

Russ FergusonRuss Ferguson Posts: 206
edited 2013-06-09 19:44 in General Discussion
Is anyone using a small hand held TV to display a simple face for a robot? I'm just starting to look into doing this with the Propeller and would like to see some samples of what others have done, if some are available. Will keep searching the forum to see what I can find.

Comments

  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2013-06-09 15:56
    I think a recent Servo magazine had an article which has a robot that had a video display used as a face. I think it was in the "Twin Tweaks" column. IIRC, they used a smartphone as the display.

    What's nice about using a TV or other display as a face is you can also use it display text.

    Someone on Let's Make Robot's recently posted an interesting robot head which uses two 8x8 LED arrays to display eyes.

    Since I'm working with some LED arrays myself, I thought I'd try to make something similar with my arrays. Just today, I've been trying to figure out how to generate decent looking circles on the array to use as eyes. I'm hoping to come up with some eye shapes that will appear to express some sort of emotional response. I'm also hoping adding color to eyes will add to their expressiveness.
  • Russ FergusonRuss Ferguson Posts: 206
    edited 2013-06-09 16:11
    That looks pretty interesting. Are you using the Maxim LED driver chip that the author refers to? BG Micro has come 2 color 5x7 arrays that could add a new twist to what you are doing (drivers would have to be done differently).
    http://www.bgmicro.com/LED1145.aspx

    Revised: Just looked at some of your other posts and saw that you have already considered the RBG arrays. Is that what you are working with?
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2013-06-09 16:42
    Check out this old thread - http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/97078-Robot-Face?highlight=Sonny+robot+face

    I can't wait to see what you do!
  • Russ FergusonRuss Ferguson Posts: 206
    edited 2013-06-09 17:19
    Whit: Thank you for pointing me over to your thread. The bitmap information from contributor "slashsplat" appears to be a good place for me to jump in, and I hope that I am not already in over my head. A while back I found a little Radio Shack Auvio 7 inch TV at a surplus store and immediately thought of using it with the Prop. The TV has its' own battery and it has a composite phono jack input. I have used it to display the prop "Graphics_Demo.spn" demo without problems. Any way, I finally have some time to work on hobby stuff and thought I would start with this.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-06-09 17:49
    Although I have not yet done this, it is something I have planned for one of my larger bots I have been working on for a few years. I purchased a dual DVD setup from Wal-Mart for $80.00 some time ago. The secondary monitor has an RCA Audio/Video input that will work perfect for it along with a Quickstart or other Propeller board. I think this option would actually be less expensive than a hand held TV.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2013-06-09 18:09
    If you're also interested in voice synthesis, I wrote some code awhile back that displays moving lips on a video monitor in sync with the voice output. You can read about it here:

    -Phil
  • Russ FergusonRuss Ferguson Posts: 206
    edited 2013-06-09 18:18
    The AV in is what got my attention, and it looks like a DVD player add-on for the car would be good way to go also. This is probably a really dumb question, but how do I look up the parameters of the objects in the "Graphics_Demo"? For instance - how do I set the size and location of a box?

    Revised: Getting off to a slow start, but i did make my way over to "Graphics" and am on my way now.
  • Russ FergusonRuss Ferguson Posts: 206
    edited 2013-06-09 18:41
    Phil: Thank you. I am very interested in the voice synthesis / lip sync that you refer to. Don't know how fast I can come up to speed with the Prop, but I appreciate all the encouragement.
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2013-06-09 19:20
    Russ Ferguson wrote: »
    That looks pretty interesting. Are you using the Maxim LED driver chip that the author refers to? BG Micro has come 2 color 5x7 arrays that could add a new twist to what you are doing (drivers would have to be done differently).
    http://www.bgmicro.com/LED1145.aspx

    Revised: Just looked at some of your other posts and saw that you have already considered the RBG arrays. Is that what you are working with?


    Yes, I'm using RGB arrays. I purchased the arrays from this seller.

    Sorry, I can't help with your graphic's question. The last time I tried to use the graphic.spin object in a project, I ran out of memory. I generally end up using a second Propeller as a graphics slave whenever I add video to a project since video is such a memory hog.

    Whit wrote: »
    Check out this old thread

    Thanks for posting the link Whit. I hadn't seen that thread before. I hadn't started to use microcontrollers back in '07. There are a lot of fun ideas on that thread.
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2013-06-09 19:44
    @Russ and Duane - You are welcome. Keep up the good work!
Sign In or Register to comment.