Fold, Spindle but Don't Mutilate that Robot!
Harvard and MIT researchers have made a self-folding origami robot.
While that may seem to be an odd kind of a novelty, consider the possibilities. What about a self-creating tool kit or Swiss Army Knife? What about every peeler and basic kitchen gadget, all in one tidy little package? How about a box full of toys, all together in one place? That could be mighty useful for entertaining a child (or, heck, an adult) on a long flight.
Currently, the origami robot only makes a plane and a boat, but there's really no reason why it cannot be programmed to slide itself into other shapes.
For more information, check out the June 29, 2010 edition of Discover Magazine. Continue reading
Robotics Frameworks
Robotics is hard. Really hard.
So platforms are the way to go. And that is a part of what we at Neuron Robotics are trying to do. The DyIO is envisioned as being an interoperable framework for robotics development. But it's not the only framework out there.
Robotic frameworks are currently in a state of flux, and no one framework has yet achieved dominance. Plus there are robotic projects like the QB telepresence robot by Anybot, which is constructed with an internally developed framework.
Gostai's Urbi has a range of robotic development tools and platforms. Access to Urbi and the Object Management Group's (OMG) Robot Technology components is accomplished via Gostai's urbiscript. Urbiscript is a programming language that handles parallel and event-based programming. The Urbi platform is Open Source, although not all of Gostai's tools are.
ROS is an Open Source framework that runs on robots like the Beagle Board and Willow Garage's Texai and PR2.
The iRobot Aware 2 uses an open architecture and is built upon an Open Source framework. However, its higher level tools (the robotics and Operator Control Unit, AKA the OCU) are proprietary. iRobot is able to add security features that may not be present in other platforms.
Frameworks are going to develop and diverge. At some point, there may be a VHS to many Betamaxes. Neuron Robotics hopes to be at the forefront of interoperability as frameworks continue to evolve.
For more information, check out the September 9, 2010 edition of Electronics Design magazine.
Opera Bots?
Death and the Powers is a one-act opera featuring a chorus of singing robots. The opera centers on an obscenely rich man transferring what is essentially his personality and experiences into a computer-style system after his demise.
This is a person converting himself into software. It's the ultimate personal reboot.
The libretto is written by three-time U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and the story is cowritten by him and writer-director Randy Weiner, whose works include The Donkey Show.
The American premiere will be in March of 2011, in Boston with the American Repertory Theater and Opera Boston as a tie-in to the MIT 150th Anniversary celebration.
Would you go to see an opera starring robots?
ShutUp and StartUp Weekend
This great event was held on October 22nd and 23rd at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. We have been to this venue several times and love it.
The event encompassed two days. The first was a lecture and buffet dinner with networking. The second was lunch, then a work session with mentoring, and a job fair, followed by more networking.
The first night's lecturers were:
- Michael J. Hagen of SCVNGR,
- Jason Evanish of Greenhorn Connect,
- Aaron Gerry of Zazu
- Antonio Rodriguez of Matrix Partners, and,
- Secretary Greg Bialecki, representing the Commonwealth
On the first night, we met:
- Brian Lynn of BookBlunder,
- James Lamarche, a student at Wentworth,
- Lisa Reilly of The Yellow Brick Road Foundation,
- Luis Carrasco, a student at my alma mater (Boston University! Go Terriers!)
- Mikhail Gurevich, who is a classmate with Luis (above) and Wes (below). They are also founders of I-NVS,
- Thomas Fuller (pictured on page 7 of that link), another Wentworth student, and,
- Wesley Griswold, who is also at BU
We saw these old friends:
- Abby Fichtner of Microsoft,
- Joselin Mane of LITBeL Consulting, and,
- R. Colin Kennedy.
On the second day, there was the Job Fair. So of course we brought the hexapod with us. What, you say? Doesn't everyone bring a six-legged walking robot to a job fair?
At the job fair, we met:
- Aditya Jain, another student at my alma mater,
- Andy Marx of eHana,
- Diane Williams,
- Elaine Yuan,
- Kevin McCarthy of Pinyadda/Boston Innovation,
- Patrick Camacho of 38 Media Design,
- Robert Schuman,
- Ms. Ryan Mitchell, a Web Developer at Harvard, and,
- Spencer Frazier who is graduating from Boston College next year
We also saw these old friends:
- Cheryl Morris of Pinyadda/Boston Innovation and
- Bobbie Carlton of Mass Innovation Nights, who gave us some great information on an upcoming Steam Punk exhibition at the Charles River Museum of Industry.
We had a good time, and a lot of people seemed to really love the hexapod. We even picked up some resumes from some extremely interesting possible job candidates. Right now we are looking to fix some software development issues and would love to bring in someone with that skill set (plus other skills). We're a growing company! Come grow with us. Continue reading
Mass Innovation September 15, 2010 Review
Mass Innovation was great fun! We had a marvelous time and hope you did, too. As always, many, many thanks to Bobbie Carlton and Dan Englander, and to Microsoft! Here's what you might have missed.
Experts -- I mean, Events -- Corner
- Boston World Partnerships — A non-profit organization, created by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to raise global awareness of Boston. Its mantra is: Inform and Connect
- BREW — Boston Region Entrepreneurship Week is going to be between October 13th and 21st. Are you hosting an event?
- Greenhorn Connect — Boston’s Entrepreneur Hub for Resources, Events and Organizations. We're happy to say we've been covered by them!
- Mass High Tech events — MHT runs its own events, and will also put yours on their calendar. Their future events include their upcoming “Demos with a capital “M”: Networking and Digital Marketing Demo Night” on October 7 as part of FutureM. Mass Innovation Nights friends get a discount! (Use code DKPL8116 when you register.)
- MIT Enterprise Forum is working to build our innovation economy.
- Todd Van Hoosear he's a Social Media Club Boston Founder, LaunchCamp organizer, and the VP of Social Media for Publicity Club of New England. He also writes for Fresh Ground. Here's an example of one of the many incredibly useful nuggets of information that Todd shares on a regular basis. I suspect Todd does not sleep.
- Workbar has flexible, shared office space for today’s mobile professionals offering flexible month to month leasing arrangements.
The Other Presentations
- LogMeIn's join.me enables impromptu meetings from across the hall or around the globe.
- TrustedOnes scores decisions -- good, bad, indifferent and godawful. And,
- Vizit is a revolutionary digital photo frame, which takes advantage of mobile network coverage.
All of the Other Great Companies at Mass Inno
- Convention Center Store has detailed information on all sorts of convention venues, plus a means of ordering whatever you could possibly need to make your event or booth a success -- even swag. Gwyn Thakur is the founder.
- Cuccicoos makes a sweet set of iPhone and iPod (plus other products) covers that not only protect, they also clean screens. The designs were really cute -- I think I appreciate such things more than the guys do.
- Internet Kit Trade Show lets you easily get computers set up at trade shows, and more!
- Novell Cloud Manager helps you to manage cloud computing processes.
- ParallelCities is a mobile and social networking platform. Elizabeth Tang is the marketer (she has the same role that I do!) and Sidi Gomes is the founder.
- Plyopower is a cardio program for your legs. Regina DeLuca is the founder.
- StarStreet is a sports stock market. Buy and sell virtual shares of players! I wonder if anyone in New England will give me anything for A-Rod? Founder Jeremy Levine assures me that you can get into their Beta with the code MassInno and see if you can get a plug nickel for the -- boo, hiss -- quintessential Yankee.
Our Presentation
I think I'm not the greatest camera person. Actually -- scratch that -- I know, for a fact, that my videocam skills are suboptimal. So, a great big thank you goes out to BostInnovation for taking excellent video of much of Bob's presentation. And thank you to Cheryl Morris for her recap of the event.Bob's talk centered around the fact that a lot of people have a perception of robots that's colored by Hollywood. We think Rosie from the Jetsons, or R2D2 (Nadia Nassif mentioned Small Wonder's Vikki), but the reality is that robots are, how shall we put this? Lamer than that.
Yes, it's true. They're lamer. They are industrial drones or basically just arms. But what people don't think of as robots, can be classified as such. Like some high-end cars. BMW (We swear we're not sponsored by BMW. Yet.) makes a vehicle that detects how closely you're following a vehicle ahead of you and will adjust your cruise control speed accordingly, then speed you back up once the spacing allows it. Or your home -- do you have central air conditioning? If you do, it will click on and off depending upon the ambient temperature of your home. This is, essentially, a form of robotic control.
And when people want to make a robot-like device or toy, they often think of the end product, but the reality is that there's too much in the way. So much of the time, you end up reinventing the wheel, as the essential system allowing you to get your robot and your computer to speak to one another is lacking. That's where Neuron Robotics and the Bowler Communications System come in.
The BCS allows you to have your computer and robot talking quickly. How quickly? It's an eight minute experience -- a point that caught the attention of a great deal of the audience. And who doesn't want fast?
Bob concluded by, of course, talking about the DyIO and about our vision of interoperability. We want to be an essential robotics developmental platform. We want to be your go-to when you think about putting together a robotic device.
The talk went over well. The BMW line in particular got a laugh. Bob had high energy and the audience seemed captivated. And, yes, there was even a joke about the eight-minute experience -- Sean Boyce only has time to build a robot unless it takes 3.5 minutes. For you, Sean, we'll see what we can do.
New Friends!
Wherever we go, it seems, we make new friends. Here are some of the terrific people we met.- Eric Andersen is a Senior I/T Architect and Consultant for IBM Global Services in Cambridge Massachusetts. He's an avid tweeter and has been very kind about mentioning us on Twitter! Be sure to follow him -- he knows so much!
- Heinz Bachmann is an Electrical Engineer who loves solving RF, microwave and wireless problems -- particularly strange and unusual problems.
- Caleb Barlow is the Director of Small Business Solutions at IBM. He podcasts!
- David Barron is a technology consultant.
- Josh Berg runs an online personalized shopping mall.
- Mick Darling blogs about trends in tech, business and politics.
- Daniel Davis is the Director of Life Sciences at Accounting Management Solutions.
- Andrew Drane is the Senior Web Developer at Better Lesson
- Janet Egan is a fabulous writer (and I'm not just saying that 'cause she wrote such nice things about us). We Janets must stick together!
- Barb Finer helps companies differentiate their products and penetrate their markets.
- Jon Frisch is focused on new business and client relationship management at T3, his real estate firm.
- Jason Gleason is the Lead .NET Engineer at HealthcareSource -- and he really likes robots.
- Elli St. George Godfrey is an entrepreneurial coach and the coauthor of the upcoming book, When Life Happens. Good luck with the book!
- David Haith is a BAFTA award winning Creative Director and was co-founder of two major digital studios in London during the 1990's.
- Matthew Harris is a Principal at Red Point Studios.
- Christopher Herot blogs about communications and social media.
- Darnley Howard is the President of Advansa International.
- Gregory Huang is the Editor of Xconomy Boston and National IT Editor. He's a journalist reporting on technology, business, and science.
- Kenneth Kozik is a patent attorney.
- Sean Laurence's favorite charity is One Laptop Per Child. I think I'll go check out OLPC, too.
- Scott Leonard is another Principal at Red Point Studios.
- Jeremy Levine is trading Tom Brady on his sports stock market. Does Gisele know?
- Tony Loftis is a Project Manager who works in global sales and service.
- Maureen Mansfield knows all the secrets to great travel!
- Connie Michener -- psst I think she wants a hexapod for Christmas ....
- Cheryl Morris writes for BostInnovation.
- Nadia Nassif is a Principal at Springboards Language Training and Consulting.
- Lex Nemzer is a small-batch coffee roaster. I can guarantee that he makes better coffee than I do.
- Peter Reilly is a CPA.
- Pardees Safizadeh is the Director of Social Media at Greenhorn Connect.
- Stanley Shein is a Co-Founder and Director at C-Level Clone.
- James Walker is another Director at C-Level Clone. They provide expertise on business-based financial solutions.
- Rachel is also known as Wishew
- Connie Wright is Managing Director at Accounting Management Solutions.
- Lori Yarvis is an attorney focusing on small businesses. And,
- Lihua Zou is a student.
Familiar Faces!
It's always great to see our friends. They make every event so much easier and more fun.- Robert Adelson is an attorney
- Stacie Andrews runs the Meet Impact Calendar.
- Josh Bob is the founder and principal of Textaurant.
- Eric Braun runs the South Shore Innovation space.
- Rodney Brown reports and photographs for Mass High Tech. He took a great photo of Bob and me!
- Mike Burtov runs ONY group.
- Mike Cohen is one of the principals of the VC Ready Law Group.
- Andrea Dacayanan runs One Fast Bite.
- Jeff Del Papa runs the New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society (The NERDs!). He wanted to know how much G-force the DyIO can stand. That would be an interesting experiment.
- Jason Evanish runs Greenhorn Connect. They have an events calendar and more, and even profiled us!
- Abby Fichtner works for the Microsoft BizSpark program.
- David Fogel - need a CFO for hire? Ask him.
- Allison Friedman runs Rate It Green, whereby you can check just how ecologically conscious a company is.
- Paul Geffen is an engineer for Bit9.
- Cynthia Gilbert is a patent attorney.
- Nick Goggans works to improve communications and make them more effective.
- Ben Hron is the other principal of the VC Ready Law Group.
- Kelley Kassa is a terrific writer!
- R. Colin Kennedy is a co-founder of Invizual.
- Rick Kollmeyer works to help innovators refine and perfect their ideas.
- Joselin Mane broadcasts every week about TweetUps in the Boston/Cambridge area.
- Marlin May has a brand-spankin' new job! He took a photo of Kevin and me!
- Jon Michaeli is a VP at Quno.
- Ricart Prats is a software engineering management professional
- Richard Reinertsen and I used to work together at Fidelity Investments.
- Yilmaz Rona is an financial advisor.
- Rich Sands works to help companies build and sustain buzz.
- Brian Selchick is our lawyer!
- Masoud Shadravan is a software engineer with a brand-spankin' new job!
- Christine Sierra is a media consultant.
- Mark Sprague works to help companies drive customers to their websites.
- Margery Stegman is a communications specialist.
- Marsh Sutherland can help you easily grow your social network.
- Chuck Tanowitz is one of the principals of Fresh Ground Communications.
- Todd Van Hoosear is the other principal of Fresh Ground Communications, and,
- Marcia Weiss helps executives communicate better and more effectively.
Where to Now?
It looks like we'll have something planned for late October. I don't have a lot of information yet, or even if it will be open to the public. I will have some appearances around the Boston-Cambridge-Waltham area as well. Plus we are going to be working on getting settled into our new incubator space. I'm sure I'll be blogging a bit about how that goes.Thank you again for all of your kind support. We greatly appreciate it, and we know that we could not have been voted in to present at Mass Innovation without the kind and generous support of all of you.
This is but the beginning. Continue reading
Mass Innovation is Tonight!
The time is almost here!
We are really looking forward to this one. I have been coming to Mass Inno for almost a year and have always loved this event. It's such a joy to be a part of it!
Thanks to everyone who voted for us. We'll see you tonight. And -- don't forget to bring a Smart Phone or some other way to tweet! Thanks!
Mass Innovation is Tomorrow!
We are very excited about going, and can't wait to see everyone there!
Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us! And, if you haven't already (voting ends at noon today, Eastern Daylight Time), here's the link: Mass Innovation Voting.
Thank you!
Thank You for Voting for Us!
Mass Inno voting ends tomorrow.
We are truly humbled by, and grateful for, your kind and generous support. We are very excited about going to Mass Inno.
Thank you to Bobbie Carlton and Mass Innovation. And a big, sincere thank you to all of you!
Onward to glory!
See you there! Thanks for voting for us!
Getting to Mass Innovation by Car
Mass Innovation will be held at the Microsoft NERD Center located at:
1 Memorial Dr
Cambridge, MA 02142
There is ample parking underneath the building but it is not free.
From the West
Take Route 2 to Memorial Drive, and travel into Cambridge, to the very end of Memorial Drive. Arrive at 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, on the Left.
From the East (within Boston)
Take the Longfellow Bridge West into Cambridge and continue to follow Route-3 North. Bear Right to take ramp toward Route-3 North/Memorial Drive West. Turn Right on Route-3 North. Make a U-Turn at Ames Street onto Memorial Drive.(Route-3 South). Arrive at 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, on the Right.
From the North
Take Interstate 93 South to Exit #26/Storrow Drive/North Station onto Storrow Drive(Route-28 S) toward Route-3 North. Take Left ramp onto Route-3 N toward Kendall Square/Cambridge/Memorial Drive. Bear Right to take ramp toward Route-3 North/Memorial Drive West. Turn Right on Route-3 North. Make a U-Turn at Ames Street onto Memorial Drive.(Route-3 South). Arrive at 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, on the Right.
From the South
Take Interstate 93 North to Exit #26/Storrow Drive/North Station onto Storrow Drive(Route-28 S) toward Route-3 North. Take Left ramp onto Route-3 N toward Kendall Square/Cambridge/Memorial Drive. Bear Right to take ramp toward Route-3 North/Memorial Drive West. Turn Right on Route-3 North. Make a U-Turn at Ames Street onto Memorial Drive.(Route-3 South). Arrive at 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, on the Right.
Here is a map of the area:
View Larger Map See you there -- but before you go, please vote for us to present at Mass Innovation. The competition is fierce this month and we need every vote -- especially yours! Thanks! Continue reading
Ordering a DyIO -- Hands On
At Mass Innovation, you're going to see DyIOs. And they are going to be hooked up to all sorts of things.
But, what's a DyIO? DyIO stands for Dynamic Input- Output device. It's interoperable, and can be connected to any type of computer. Mac? No problem. PC? We hook them up all the time. Linux Box? You're included, too.
And, what is it used for? It's used to allow your computer to communicate with the outside world.
How? Come to Mass Inno and we will show you!
See you there -- but before you go, please vote for us to present at Mass Innovation:. The race is a hot one and we could really use your vote. Thanks!
Preview of our Mass Inno Presentation
Before the big show, there are a million little bits of preparation. Now, I can't divulge exactly what's going to happen (they made me swear on a stack of DyIOs not to tell), but I can say this much: be sure to bring your smart phones to Mass Inno and be ready to sign into your Twitter accounts.
You're going to need them.
See you there -- but before you go, please vote for us to present at Mass Innovation. The competition is fierce and we truly need your help. Thanks!
Thank you to the Boston Herald!
Recently, Kevin was interviewed by The Boston Herald for their Business section. The article appeared not only online, but also in the print version of the Sunday, August 1, 2010 edition of the paper.
As the lead story.
In the article, Kevin talked about the origins of Neuron Robotics and about the development of the DyIO.
And -- in case you missed it in the article -- Kevin reveals that the DyIO is for sale. We expect to be shipping in a few months. We are, as they say, going places.
Come along.
Beyond Robotics Video Posted
If you weren't able to attend our event or just want to relive the talk that Greg gave, check out the video of his talk.
Continue readingSneak Peek ....
.... at a new part for Beyond Robotics, #NRBR.
[caption id="attachment_885" align="alignright" width="225" caption="A sneak peek at a new part for Beyond Robotics, our TEDxBoston talk"]
[/caption]
What is it???
Stay tuned.
What do you really need?
A cable, a cable, my kingdom for a USB cable!
Okay, so Richard III didn't really say that.
But did you know that it's one of the only bits of equipment we're bringing to TEDxBoston for use with the DyIO?
Really?
Yes, it's true. You really don't need that much. A DyIO, a USB cable and some sensors, which you can buy at Amazon. And an iRobot Create. Not too much more.
Really?
An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.
Richard III really did say that. Act IV, Scene 4.
See you at the Microsoft NERD Center on July 27th. Don't forget to use the #NRBR hashtag for the event. Thank you.
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