University of South Florida Students, Rodrigo Guiterrez and Jeff Craig, created a native iPhone app to control iRobot’s Packbot over Wi-Fi.
The app streams video directly to the iPhone so they can sneak on to other college campuses and steal their precious mascots. Right now, the app uses arrows on the screen to control the robot, but soon, they hope to control it with the accelerometer.
Get ready for your Roomba to take over your home when the App Store hits in early July.
And there should be some way to sell this to the Pentagon. They just love robots.
“They just love robots” – especially the two-legged variety.
*ahem*
SKYNET!!!!!!!!
Yet another use for the never impractical iPhone. A really expensive remote control.
Yeah, it’s an expensive controller, for now. Think about it a bit more; it’s a pilot project.
The robot understands the command language of the iPhone, and can respond to those commands. Imagine the iPhone (or something similar, and maybe more universal) as a universal robotic controller, and a application specific receiver on the robot that can communicate with the controller.
Nay sayers say what you want… This is cool!
Allot of stuff that could be controlled via the iPhone… Could make for some kind of standardized controller/interface. But it doesn’t exclude the other smart phones out there. Probably the buzz that floats around the iPhone brings it to the front of the line when considering such things…