Note: This is a repost from Mr. Cross' Blog

Hi! My name is WiMo. I'm ready to play!

I'd like to introduce everyone to WiMo.   WiMo, this is everyone... Everyone, this is WiMo.  What exactly is WiMo? and why did I build him?  Both are great questions. 

WiMo is the the Windows Mobile Robot.  The name comes from the "Wi" from "Windows" and "Mo" from "Mobile" and is pronounced "Weemo" (think of it like a Spanish pronounciation). 

I built WiMo for a few different reasons:

1. I've always wanted to build a robot and wanted to learn more about hardware.
2. Working in Windows Mobile, i thought that our devices would be a lot of fun in a robot especially considering that they also have so much advanced functionality just waiting to be used in a robot (nice screen, speaker, several options of connectivity, an extremely rich API set, camera, etc).
3. This would be a great way to show off some of our new and existing APIs and use the SDK in a fun and unique way.

Here's an overview of how WiMo works:
WiMo uses a Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone as the central "brain" of the robot.  This Smartphone sits directly ontop of a Windows Mobile SDK cd (I did say i was using the SDK in a fun and unique way).  The Smartphone communicates to a microcontroller via Bluetooth, using our Managed Bluetooth classes and also communicates with a Pocket PC (and soon to be desktop pc instead) via WiFi.  The Pocket PC can be used to remotely control WiMo.  The action pad of the Pocket PC is used for standard movement (up, down, left, right, stop). 

WiMo has 2 "modes": Personality mode and camera mode.  When WiMo is in personality mode, the Smartphone's screen is facing forward and displays a picture that represents WiMo.  Right now this is just any photo that I send down to the Smartphone from the Pocket PC. When in Camera Mode, WiMo rotates the Smartphone to face it's camera forward and starts streaming video using DirectShow.  This allows you to see where you are going (although it can be fairly difficult to navigate with this tunnel vision).  Eventually I will use Managed Direct3D for the personality mode, giving WiMo a more dynamic personality.  I'm also planning to use the camera mode for computer vision so that WiMo can start to figure things out for himself (aka be autonomous).  

WiMo is learning to make conversation and respond to voice commands via some new prototype APIs in Voice Command.  These APIs are not available yet, but we are looking to make them available in the future.  WiMo can respond to his name, tell jokes if asked, and even dance!

Yes, that's right, WiMo can dance!  He uses the State and Notification Broker to time his dance moves to the music.  One of the many (100+) predefined states available in the S&N Broker is the track time (in milliseconds, although it is not updated this frequently) of the song.  WiMo gets an event whenever the track time is updated and then can determine which dance move to do.  Currently WiMo dances the hokey pokey. 

Speaking of events, WiMo is built primarily in C#.  I had to write a native layer for DirectShow, but i use it via C#.  So, except for some of the support libraries, everything is done in .NetCF. 

Want to see WiMo in action?  Check out the Channel9 video on WiMo. 
Want to build your own WiMo?  I'll be posting step-by-step instructions on how to build WiMo, even if you have never worked with electronics (I had little experience with electronics before I started building WiMo).  I'll be posting what parts I used, where I got them, and the source code so that you can start playing as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please let me know!  VISIT HERE FOR MORE

Hope everyone is doing well.  Just got back from a weekend outing with Cynthia over at Hilton, it was quite enjoyable. We even got to snorkel a bit together.  One of the Philippine Congressman was even around, although we did most certainly NOT talk to him, hehehe. Go figure.

 

You may have heard, there is an ASEAN summit meeting here in December, which will be held at a new Convention Center under construction in the North Reclamation area. In fact, President Arroyo was here the other day, and pledged some additional support to the local government units for the preparations to get underway. What bothers me with this is the disproportional amounts being dispersed to LGU's, for example, P700 million to Lapu-Lapu city for road wideing and only P200 million and P100 million to the cities of Mandaue and Cebu respectively.  They constructed a bridge several years ago for the very bad traffic problems between the cities (Mactan Island where LapuLapu City is located is across from Cebu, where Mandaue and Cebu City is located). To make matters worse, they are already planning to widen resort roads, a big mistake in my opinion, as it will certainly kill the tourism industry in Mactan.  The island's corals and natural areas have already been devasted in the last 10 years from bad master planning, and we are strarting to see even more commercial buildings go up (such as Bigfoot's animation studios center) with absolutely no tourism or residential value to the areas.  What they should have done was spend the money on some hotel rooms for the delegates nearby OR better yet, moved the venue and STOP WASTING MONEY.  Or better yet, why not have ASEAN Nights at the beach (like the recently touted Jamaican Nights) and pitch some tents.  The rep's can sip coconut juice and eat mangoes, while getting their work done to escape the heat. :)

 

Today is Labor Day, which means no work and a boring day. Chalk it up to Eve, who ate from the tree, forcing us to be enslaved for our salvation. Luckily I'm saved, and hence, I'll probably sit and do work anyway. haha.

 

I stumbled across a rather big Microsoft marketing site that is worth a stop: http://www.400plusdifferences.com/ 

Maybe I should be working here, sucking down coffee making video clips. Ah, the life.

 

Well, TTFN.. gotta go do some 'work'. hehe.

 

-Enjoy!