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E3: Transforming a Laptop Into a Robot


C|Net’s News.com is reporting on a kit announced by Evolution Robotics at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles that can transform an average laptop PC into an intelligent robot.:

Company Chairman Bill Gross said the real breakthrough with the company’s software is real-time processing of visual data. The Evolution software can interpret images at a rate of five frames per second, matching data captured by the camera with a library of visual references. Instead of executing pre-determined routines, as most robots do, the Evolution system can respond to its environment almost instantly.

Program the software to recognize a beer bottle and a refrigerator, for example, and next time you’re running on empty, you just need to wave a bottle in front of the laptop’s camera and request a refill.

The first Evolution system, the ER-1, is available now for US$599 as an assembled system or US$499 as a kit directly from Evolution’s Web site. No word as to when the Mac OS X-native version will be shipping.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.