Gee how can I start this post…
London 3D Print Show was very interesting.
It was a 3 days event, so plenty of time to demonstrate, meet people, talk a lot, to the point that my voice started to change at some point.
The robot didn’t brake any printed part, but I burned 2 servos. The reason, in the right arm I’m still using the first version for to attach the servos, and the wires got tangled between themselves and caused an overstress. Smoke came out of the arm + an awfull smell, very easy to recognize.
Unfortunatly I had no more spare servos because I had used them for to demonstrate the Leap Motion in another printed arm. (see video)
So the saturday went without two fingers functionning, it’s okay, people understand if you explain why InMoov keeps his index pointing even when you tell him to close his hands.
The trouble is that I’m not sure to receive the recent ordered servos for the Paris Show…
I was interviewed by the french national TV France2
Okay beside that I finally fixed the script to get a hand working with Leap Motion, thanks to Seokju Lee, Doctor Shim for sending the script used by the App Node.js, and thanks to Alessandro for his support on how to set node.js and the differents scripts on the various computers I have. It was not a easy task, Leap requires the most updated computer and settings you can find, and the scripts don’t work well on Windows. Couldn’t install Wuby UbUntu on my laptop correctly, because after updating Ubuntu, which was required to work with Leap, it would just crash and couldn’t recover from corrupted files.
I finally ended up, the night before London, installing everything on the Mac BookPro of my wife until 4AM.
And TADAAA, it worked:
It is very impressive, frankly, it’s like being in Minority Report.
So we had it on display in London and the kids and adults really loved it. What is very interesting to see is how the people get a hold on it, they just can’t stop, because you need a bit of adaptation to understand really how it works.
Mainly the hand has to be set at the correct level and not totally above the Leap.
I have to say though that Leap Motion is not really acurate, I tried to control the screen of my computer with it, and for that, it isn’t Minority Report yet and it is barely possible.Too much latency or more like springy effect which makes it very difficult to position the mouse where you need to click. I guess it is conceived for games and controlling InMoov hands. 🙂
I contacted Leap Motion by email to see if they would be interested to be part of this display or to even talk about it, but they answered that they were not interested to talk with developpers… Strange response, I think it was a robot that answered me.
During the show we met a lot of people, really a lot! Some already knew the project, some not, it is nice to see and hear how they visualize it for the future and what feeling they have about it.
It is interesting to see that people are approaching InMoov in a kind way, without fear. Somehow it represents what is yet to come. I am sure it has to do with the face and the body I sculpted , it helps to accept him has something not harmful.
InMoov says ” Hello”:
A young boy playing with InMoov and Leap Motion
A London boy trying out the ability of the eye tracking.
No, InMoov is not trying to choke that person. 🙂
Bre Pettis of Makerbot with InMoov
During this London event, I also met Fritz of LetsMakeRobots, very nice person, and I hope to get in contact again. I met the creator of Printcrafting, saw the guys of Wasp again.
Our neighboors in the event:
KentStrapper, with a very sturdy 3D printer which could be left running during the nights.
Stilnest, represents many artists and designers, during the show they had a 3D printed Cuckoo clock which would operate if you would tweet about them.
Filafab which have created a machine to extrude filament from pellets.
Shapelize. French people with huge Legos and other creative things.
Also met some french people who 3D print dinausorus, totally amazing!
Oh I got a roll of soft material Filaflex for to try printing rubber like finger tips, Thanks to Recreus. I will let you know how this goes. It could be very cool if it could be just printed instead of having to add silicone or Sugru.
During the time, I’m fooling around in different countries, Grog of MyRobotLab keeps programming!!
Check this out this is becoming serious:
Read the complete post…
MAKE hangout will be held tomorrow at 7PM Eastern time on Google. The session will be for about an hour, and
Sherry Huss, Stuart Gannes, Mike Senese, Greg Perry, Chuck Fletcher, and I will be talking about InMoov’s conception to reality. Link to MAKE Article
I also want to mention, and I will again in the next post, that I contacted Advancer Tecnologies for their myo sensors since they should be the one I will be using for the Prosthetic hand on Izgi, my beta tester girl.
And they have kindly proposed to send two kits for testing, so test with the new hand should begin soon, I only still need to get a Mini Arduino, and finish design on the thumb rotation.
Aaaah, for someone that had such a hard time in school to fill up half a page, I think I’m doing well.
Time for bed, 1:20AM