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PaperTape

Inspired by a thread on NXTasy, here is a simple (very simple) NXT-based robot that just rolls over a series of symbols on the floor, interpreting them as numbers & operators to do simple math. While it displays the result (as well as calculation steps) on the LCD, for the video I needed a simple way to have the result captured in the video, so I added a simple routine that will “speak” a number. You have to listen closely, but at the end the robot verbally recites the digits of the answer …

Duration : 0:2:46


[youtube 6UUn6OexSDk]

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Juan Pablo

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18 responses to “PaperTape”

  1. brdavis5 Avatar
    brdavis5

    Not sure – it’s a ” …
    Not sure – it’s a “Life Is Good” shirt, and IMS it might be “Think Outside the Box” with a picture of a TV on it.

  2. Jorbs3210 Avatar
    Jorbs3210

    What does your …
    What does your shirt say?

  3. brdavis5 Avatar
    brdavis5

    Well, the light …
    Well, the light sensors are something everybody has – color sensors, not so much. And there’s no need; notice that barcodes, or even “real” CDs, only use two states (black/white, zero/one) to encode information. Adding color recognition would increase the density of information… but drastically increase the complexity. The rollers can’t really be removed… as without them, the paper doesn’t stay at the right distance, and it “reads” poorly.

  4. naetoru99 Avatar
    naetoru99

    (runs outa space XD …
    (runs outa space XD) my friend did one in a disc style that was about a foot and a half in diameter and it actually drew pictures on the screen! In adition, and this is probably getting WAAY off track, but you could use 3 color sensors and use the last port with an accelerometerthat is attached to a pivot that tilts in all directions. Try programing the accleometer to be used as a mouse with the PaperTape style reader system. The best thing about what i said is that it uses 1 motor only! try it!

  5. naetoru99 Avatar
    naetoru99

    heres a thought …
    heres a thought though. Replace the light sensors with color sensors. Then have a layout that has paper (With colored squares of course.)on rollers. as the colors are rolled past the stationary sensors, they translate that into text, sound, math, or whatever. Basically its a lego CD scanner. the ones ive seen b4 use discs, and the further in the data is, the harder it is to scan. This way, its easy! Also, make the rollers removable so that you can view more data.

  6. brdavis5 Avatar
    brdavis5

    both this and DCII …
    both this and DCII are terribly inefficient ways to do basic math – that’s really not the point of either creation. The idea was to try something in a new way or lean something new in the process. For PaperTape, it does a couple of things in a unique way: it can recognize characters, and it can speak numbers out loud. Neither of which DCII can manage.

  7. naetoru99 Avatar
    naetoru99

    whats the point of …
    whats the point of this if you have the digicomp?

  8. azerrlight Avatar
    azerrlight

    what u could do is …
    what u could do is attach a pen eventually making it write the number as well as saying it =D

  9. jorge10206 Avatar
    jorge10206

    thanks very …
    thanks very intelligent way of doing it

  10. brdavis5 Avatar
    brdavis5

    The robot scans the …
    The robot scans the paper using four light sensors: it is the changing pattern of black and white that allow the robot to recognize shapes. For instance, the sequence “all white”, followed by “all black”, followed by “all white” again would indicate a 1. Each symbol has a different pattern to it.

  11. jorge10206 Avatar
    jorge10206

    how does the robot …
    how does the robot “sees” the shapes ?

  12. brdavis5 Avatar
    brdavis5

    Well… that would …
    Well… that would require the PaperTape robot to be able to find and set a large number of switch on the DCII. That would be rather challenging… but fun to think about.

  13. Coastergeekperson04 Avatar
    Coastergeekperson04

    What if you hooked …
    What if you hooked it up to the DigiComp and set it to use the DigiComp as the calculator, and the PaperTape just scans it?

  14. brdavis5 Avatar
    brdavis5

    You’re welcome – …
    You’re welcome – I’m glad it was clear on the video. In fact, the reason I have it “speak” the answer was so the video would be easy to understand (no reading of tiny LCD screens required).

  15. NaRUtoRoCKz4EVEA Avatar
    NaRUtoRoCKz4EVEA

    Put that into mass …
    Put that into mass production we could have robot calculators ow cool would that be!

  16. bazmarc Avatar
    bazmarc

    well done – very …
    well done – very clear video presentation
    thanks for sharing

  17. Raeven05 Avatar
    Raeven05

    Nice!!! I’ll need …
    Nice!!! I’ll need one of your robots and alotta super sized papers 🙂

  18. nutsforlego Avatar
    nutsforlego

    good very cool
    good very cool

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