GOOGLE
GOOGLE was one of my first PROTOTYPE robots, when I first
came up with the idea to save millions of computers by using them
to provide FREE computers for kids, to program home-made ROBOTS.
GOOGLE as a name, came from the GOOGLY EYES that were used
to make the simplistic face. Like THE FACEBOOK, which was
shortened to " Facebook", it became obvious that a SHORT name
on the internet was incredibly important - hence the short form,
"GOOGLE" for the robot. This robot, as a proof of concept, could
only move with 2 simple motors, and could only "SPEAK" with
a simple speaker, in two Frequencies - a high beep, and a low beep,
which was easy to program in BASIC.
It had no feedback compared to later robots, was light-blind, and
therefore was much easier to interface - however, since it was
a test platform, it served its purpose. This prototype was created
4 years before I even got the idea of putting kidbots.com on the
internet, and my notes show I invented GOOGLE about
September 14th, 1997 - many years before most of todays'
robotic kits were ever thought about. GOOGLE served as
the inspiration for my later robot SERVO, which can be
seen at: http://www.kidbots.com/SERVO/SERVO.html
Since GOOGLE could only "TALK" using a Morse-Code
type of BEEP, I made a quick GOOGLE TRANSLATE
program, to de-code the BEEPS so that kids could print
out the chart, and easily understand what GOOGLE was
saying. ALSO, since GOOGLE could only move in simple
program steps such as FORWARD 1, BACKWARDS 1,
LEFT, and RIGHT, in order to navigate, I made a chart
program to show the path to the FINAL DESTINATION
point, from any series of commands - this I called
GOOGLE MAPS, so kids could MAP out where GOOGLE
was going to end up, and show the course in between.
This was all very crude, but as a proof of concept,
it worked very well.
. When I get a moment, I will add a bit more documentation on GOOGLE,
GOOGLE MAPS, and GOOGLE TRANSLATE.
have fun
robin dusty graves
robindustygraves.com
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