Video: Orb Swarm gets a brain, going autonomous at Burning Man
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Aug 6th 2008 5:46AM
posted Aug 6th 2008 5:46AM
Remember Orb Swarm, that merry band of rolling semi-autonomous spheres? Well, they've seen the open-source wizard and came back with a brain. In other words, they've gone autonomous, or mostly so as they are now capable of navigating within a pre-defined GPS course. Besides navigation, these orbs feature an embedded processor, accelerometer and ZigBee wireless communication all of which allow the rolling spheres to "flock , flirt, dance and interact," say their creators. They're set for release en masse onto the Burning Man playa at the end of this month where they're sure to punish chemically-influenced revelers with a sense of panic suitable to the uprising. Check the video after the break for a taste if participating in pagan festivals celebrating experimental living is a bit beyond your sense of sheltered sensibility.
[Via Hack A Day and BotJunkie]
[Via Hack A Day and BotJunkie]
Hidden Mickey!
Kewl!
He's invented a remote controlled cheese grating hamster ball?
I saw these at Yuri's Night, they're pretty cool. I think it would be fun to have them race. A thousand of these racing down Market street in San Francisco would be very neat, and not at all strange in SF.
great, just what the robot overlords need...tumbleweeds of doom
I, for one, welcome our rolling, tumbling masters
Rollermines!
B.F.D. Who cares? Can it get bring me a cold brew or Dr. Pepper at Burning Man? What good is it then?
Most of all the gadgets reviewed on this site can't do that, so you are defnitely in the wrong place.
props for the Dr Pepper reference, the king of all soft drinks!
Holy shee-it! Why do I feel like I'm in a mortuary with a tall man and some creepy dwarves chasing after me? Which one has the blade and the brain-sucking vacuum on it?!?
Glad to know I am not the only one who was thinking Phantasm....
It's a big ball that rolls back and forth. Yay!!!
i live my life, like a burning man!
I AM NOT A NUMBER!
"...if a hippie walks it its way, it runs over the hippie."
Ruh roh.
can it light a water bong or bake brownies?
Whoa! It ate his finger!!!!!
"flock , flirt, dance and interact,"
And mate? XD
From what I've heard about burning man (my co-worker goes every year), these things won't even be noticed as something unusual.
They've ruined Burning Man. It used to be an anti technology festival. FOR SHAME!!!
Fire itself is technology.
Anti-Technology is not one of the principals of Burning Man. However Radical Inclusion is.