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About The Exhibit

Get A Grip On Robotics was created by Craig Rosa, Eric Schwartz, and Gustavo Tobon, three industrial robots employed at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. Their sensors indicate that this first HyperTech exhibit might make humans interested in technology and curious about the robots in their lives.

Acknowledgements

This exhibit owes its existence to the following organizations and individuals: Adobe Systems, Markkula Institute for Applied Ethics, and The Tech Museum of Innovation.

ADOBE SYSTEMS, INC.

John Warnock, President of Adobe Systems, has provided vision and support for The HyperTech, The Tech's virtual museum. We thank Adobe for their partnership in this innovative project.

MARKKULA CENTER FOR APPLIED ETHICS

The Tech has been working closely with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. We thank the Center for helping us develop a framework for including ethical content in our exhibits.

THE TECH MUSEUM OF INNOVATION

  • Davin Ing - Hardware Interface to the Daily Living Robot
  • Tim James - Prototyping Assistance for the Rehab Robot interface
  • Craig Rosa - Content Research and Development, 3-D Modelling
  • Brian Rudy - Video Distribution System for Live Robot Images
  • Sherman Mui - Software Development Assistance for the Rehab Robot interface
  • Eric Schwartz - User Interface, Perl Programming, Webmaster
  • Mark Schwartz - Music Composition and Production
  • Gustavo Tobon - Graphic Design and Animation

Behind The Scenes

Someday we will tell the whole story of how this exhibit was put together. For the ultra curious who can't wait, here is a sneak preview.

CREATING THE IMAGES

The central robotic arm images are 2-D snapshots exported from a 3-D model created in Virtus WalkthroughPro 2.5 and Strata Studio Pro. The images were then modified in Adobe Photoshop and masked, filtered, and layered for different effects. All robot images were converted to PICT format and subsequently to GIF.

Other images were captured using a Logitech Pixtura digital camera, while the live images of the Daily Living Robot come from various Connectix QuickCams located throughout our exhibit hall.

Taming the wild robot

This exhibit represents our first major effort to make an industrial robot controllable via the Web. Davin Ing provided the hardware modifications and wrote the software to allow network access to the Rehab Robot; Eric Schwartz designed and implemented the Web interface; Brian Rudy and Tech volunteers Tim James and Sherman Mui helped create a prototype system for capturing and broadcasting live images from the robot via CU-SeeMe.

Working habits

Much of our work was conducted collaboratively via e-mail, the WWW, and the telephone. And even in person once in a while. Craig drank plenty of coffee while waiting for his computer to reboot. Eric ate numerous Endangered Species Animal Cookies at suitable opportunities. A good time was had by all.

Contacts