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Tierney Hamilton

Page history last edited by Tierney 13 years, 10 months ago

11/29:

I won't be in class today- I picked up tonsillitis while I was down South and I'm waiting for the antibiotics to do their magic. I'm planning on dropping in Tues, Wed, and Thurs if that's okay. I still haven't resolved the RXTX version issue.

See you guys tomorrow!

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"The parties that you host count a great deal towards building up a good social image. Therefore, they should not be planned for hastily. The dcor, the setting, the time of day will all have to be carefully selected to provide the most convenience and excitement for your guests. No one will go to a party she expects to be boring.

Confetti is normally thrown during the peak moments of any program or party. If your own party does not have any moment set aside for this, then you wont be defining any peak or exciting moment in it. People will suspect that you may not really know how to entertain other people."

From http://aedelta.com/2010/08/03/why-people-need-to-invest-in-a-confetti-cannon/

I thought confetti was supposed to make people happy... not make me feel inadequate.

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Still working on confetti launcher solutions. The good news is that smaller CO2 launchers are available, so I might be able to buy one rather than build it. This one uses a pulled ring to fire the confetti.

http://www.starlight.com/instructionsconfettigun.html

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One of the aims of the iRobot corporation in their development of machines like the Roomba was to bring robots to the average consumer. More importantly, however, the company designed the Roomba so it could be easily hacked and changed. There's something oddly democratic about that.

So, there you have the inspiration for my project. The idea of reducing the amount of actual manpower necessary for household chores (i.e. laziness), constructing a sense of freedom and liberty from menial tasks; that for just $129.99 "anyone" can have a robot, but for $399.99 one can have a "better" robot; that "anyone" can access the interface on this robot and alter it in as many ways as they want (limited warranty notwithstanding); all struck me as very uniquely "American." To that end, I will alter three Roombas in the colors of our flag so that they will perform a patriotic tribute, complete with song, dance, and "zazz." Zazz will be supplied by Roomba-mounted confetti cannons** (which will be set off as part of their choreography to a John Philip Souza march which they will all be playing in harmony); and best of all, they will clean up after themselves when their performance is finished. Much of this can be achieved through the Roomba's native ROI, and any additional functions that the Roomba cannot perform will be controlled by an Arduino or similar microcontroller. Below is an example of the Roomba's ability to play music and move in a choreographed manner: