Toy Robots Can Guard Your Home 151
Orome1 writes "Worried about burglars ransacking your house? Buy yourself some toy robots! It is what Robert Oschler, a Florida-based programmer, did. He bought a Rovio — a Wi-Fi enabled mobile webcam robot that can be picked up from toy sections of many stores — and modified it to suit his needs. The robot already has a camera, a microphone and speakers, but the improvements he made to the software allowed him to enhance the audio and video quality of this existing equipment, and to create specific routines for the robots. This way, every time he feels the need to check what's going on in the house, he simply goes online with his laptop and directs the robot through the house."
"Enhance the audio and video quality" (Score:1, Funny)
Enhance 224 to 176.
Enhance, stop.
Move in, stop.
Pull out, track right, stop.
Center in, pull back. Stop.
Track 45 right. Stop.
Center and stop.
Enhance 34 to 36.
Pan right and pull back.
Stop. Enhance 34 to 46.
Pull back.
Wait a minute, go right, stop.
Enhance 57 to 19.
Track 45 left. Stop.
Enhance 15 to 23.
Give me a hard copy right there.
Say... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:More useful... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:More useful... (Score:4, Funny)
Why not just mount the whole dam shark on it?
Much scarier chasing burglers around the house with sharks than lasers.
Re:Say... (Score:4, Funny)
"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." - Mark Twain
My money is on the heavily armed and armored killing machines.
Re:More useful... (Score:5, Funny)
Because then you'd be up all night wondering when you're going to hear [Knock! Knock!] "Candygram!" on the bedroom door, knowing it'll be the last thing you ever hear other than your own screaming.
Land sharks can never be trusted.
All it can do is watch? (Score:5, Funny)
Bart: Milhouse. You were supposed to be the night watchman.
Milhouse: I was watching. I saw the whole thing. First it started falling over, then it fell over.
Re:Microphone (Score:1, Funny)
Considering that in some places a burglar can sue the homeowner for getting hurt during a break-in, and win, this is nowhere near as far-fetched as it should be.
If you live in one of these states, remember the 3 S's when dealing with a burglar: "shoot, shovel, and shut up".
Re:Beowulf (Score:4, Funny)
Considering this is slashdot, I automatically read that as "I'm putting a GNU on mine!" and started wondering where the punchline was...
Re:This is just Ridiculous (Score:2, Funny)
Why scare them off? I say join in with some drums.