Today the media picked up on one of our studies on the emotional expressions of LEGO Minifigure faces. Some of it is a dramatization, so here is the full text of study for your consideration. The paper received a honorable mention at the upcoming First International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (iHAI 2013).
Author: Christoph Bartneck
Time Lapse Movie of the Auckland LEGO show 2013
While exhibiting at the Auckland LEGO show last weekend, I also took a time lapse movie of the event. Of course I used Mindstorms for the motorized camera head. The iPhone camera did a good job, but its memory got filled completely. So it is only a 270 degree pan. Still, pretty neat.
Just to make thinks clear
Canterbury is a New Zealand region founded by the “Canterbury Association“. It’s largest city is Christchurch. The name of Christchurch was agreed on at the first meeting of the association on 27 March 1848. It was suggested by John Robert Godley, who had attended Christ Church College, Oxford, UK. The University of Canterbury was then founded in 1873 as New Zealand’s second-oldest university. To make things complicate, there is also a “Canterbury Christ Church University” in Kent, UK (founded in 1962). Can you feel the holy spirit already?
Playing 60 FPS Movie on iOS iPad
I had a 720p movie with 60 FPS. Many web pages argued that it is not possible to play such a movie on your iPad. I converted the source movie with Handbreak‘s iPad profile and only changed the framerate to “same as source”. After the conversion I added the transcoded movie to iTunes and transferred it to the iPad (version 2). It played back at 60 FPS without any trouble with the iOS 6 native movie app. Sometimes things work.
Video of LEGO Mindstorms EV3 R2-D2 Robot
I finally got my act together to finish up my EV3 R2D2. I had to order two additional head pieces and install the latest beta build. The new programming software is pretty sweet. The new “Move Steering” and “Move Tank” make it super easy to put together a line follower.
Here is a video of this software in action. It has obstacle avoidance, line following, random beeps, random head turns and some flashing lights: