Air

A swanee wistle, some air and two servos

The latest thing is a swanee wistle connected to a microphone via a computer and some servos. Primarily inspired by conversations with Roger Moore involving beer, this device is part of an experimental set-up looking at mimicry. Can this device, with two degrees of freedom (pitch & volume) recognizably mimic human speech? The model is based on Roger's PRESENCE model (PREdictive SENsorimotor Control and Emulation) of cognition.

It should also provide a demonstration of the complexities of human interaction and turn-taking in my SALT-E model of attention published in this paper this paper which appeared in a workshop on Companionable Dialogue Systems at ACL in 2010.

"Tethered" Yes it is a walking frame and a pair of crutches, with some pneumatics. When people ask me why, I say that it is just art, and hence needs no explanation. Here is the movie... And some things that distinguish it from other robots:

3 weeks to make - and one week of that was trying to get a 8bit C compiler to run :-/
The movement is dynamic. The first time I ran it, it threw itself on the ground. Fortunately I'd read "fast, cheap, and out of control" and so it was wearing padding at the time. Most robot builders would simply slow down the action but I wanted that sense of energy that one sees in the movie. The solution was sensors that prevent the crutches moving forward when the back legs are off the ground.