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Microsoft announces Robotics @Home contest winner: a SmartTripod that can follow you

It's had quite a run, but Microsoft's months-long Robotics @Home Competition finally came to close this past weekend at the Bay Area Maker Faire. Taking home the title (and a $10,000 prize) was Arthur Wait for his SmartTripod, a robotic assistant that relies on Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4, the Eddie development platform and, of course, a Kinect to follow a person around and handle camera duties in a natural manner -- or "almost as though a human was holding the camera," as Wait puts it. Just how well does it work? You can get a look at the robot itself and the results it's able to provide in the videos after the break.