Xaxxon

Oculus Software Update build 552

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:34:29 +0000

Updated Oculus server software is available for download on our download site, or via. auto-update within the Oculus web-client (go to menu > server menu > check for software update).

The most significant addition is OcuLED headlight integration. There are also tweaks to two-way video, taking advantages of the latest codecs in Flash plugin 11+.

Changes include:

Support for OcuLED light
Improved sound performance in Linux
Improved web-client video broadcasting with Flash 11+
Push to talk now optional
Preliminary support for remote-control iOS and Android AIR apps

Wood Robots

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:49:21 +0000

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There’s something immensely satisfying about building a robot out of… wood. Has civilization come full circle? Pictured above is the Oculus ROV, in laser-cut birch plywood. We had to tweak more than a few details for the design to translate from ABS to plywood, but the end result has turned out great.

We’re making these for our top-tier backers from our Kickstarter launch. Not sure if we’ll offer wood as a standard option—is there a market for wood robots? If you have any opinions, please let us know

Xaxxon on Front Page of the Wall Street Journal

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:04:51 +0000

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It’s only a mention, but we’ll take it! Xaxxon was on the FRONT PAGE of the WSJ weekend edition, in an article about telepresence. The article was subsequently featured on Slashdot. Robotic telepresence may not be mainstream yet, but it’s definitely gaining popularity, at an accelerating pace.

First Production Batch of Oculus Robots Shipped

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 12:44:43 +0000

We shipped out a whole bunch of Oculus Robots about a week ago; they should be starting to reach their destinations about now! We’re keeping the assembly line going, to fill orders for Oculus bots with lights—we’ll be starting to ship those in a few weeks.

Oculus Accessories Unleashed

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:25:42 +0000

OCULUS outfitted with light and Xtion 3d Sensor (zoom)

Production on the OcuLED Headlight Accessory is finally underway, and it’s now up for pre-order in our on-line store. This is a truly awesome add-on for Oculus. Complete details, including open-hardware circuit schematics for the Arduino-compatible PCB are here.

We’ve also fashioned a simple mounting bracket for the ASUS Xtion PRO and PRO Live 3D sensors. If you’re interested in one of these brackets, it will start shipping in a few weeks.
If you’re in North America, we’ve noticed ASUS has made the PRO Live variant available at newegg.com, with the price reduced to $160 – this is great news for Kinect/Primesense enthusiasts.
This sensor combined with Oculus is still recommended for developers only: Oculus software support is still only in the alpha stage, and ASUS seems to be marketing the Xtion Sensors towards developers only for now, as well.

Another great option for developers: if you want to enhance Oculus with advanced computer vision programming capabilities, we’re offering RoboRealm Computer Vision Software at a special reduced price if you combine your order with an Oculus ROV kit!

ArduinOculus PCBs Shipping Now

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:30:59 +0000

a slew of ArduinOculus boards awaiting firmware (zoom)

Today we shipped out a bunch of our ArduinOculus boards to those who pre-ordered them; they should reach their destinations in a week or so.

They’re pretty useful boards, especially if you’re making a USB powered robot a lot like Oculus, with two DC gear-motors for differential steering, and a servo for camera tilt (or sword slash, or trigger pull, or whatever nefarious task you want your robot to perform again and again…).
They can be programmed using the Arduino IDE. We’ve pre-loaded them with the Arduino Duemillenove bootloader and the default “blink led 13” firmware.

For a starting point on programming for your own project, feel free to take a look at the Oculus firmware code, which has a good basic command set.

Kickstarter Success!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:50:43 +0000

Our kickstarter campaign, launched back in December 45 days ago, finished with an incredible week, and pushed us well above our target. We’re pleased, to say the least. Thanks again to all of our supporters—we will be contacting those receiving product from us ASAP, to gather necessary information.

We weren’t sure if kickstarter would be the ideal venue to launch a product like Oculus, but it went well, and really, the press coverage alone would have been worth the effort.

To fill the void (now that we have no kickstarter web stats to obsess over any more) we’ve enabled our online store. We’ll be adding the OcuLED lights accessory for pre-order pretty soon, as well as RoboRealm CV software. We’ll also add automatic shipping calculation for non-US/Canada destinations as soon as we can; for now, please just contact us and we’ll promptly supply a shipping quote and process your order.

UPDATE Feb-2-2012: International shipping is now enabled in our online store

Oculus and the ASUS Xtion 3D Sensor

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:46:02 +0000

We’re stoked to have recently acquired an ASUS Xtion Pro Live 3D sensor, which is ASUS’s version of the Microsoft Kinect. The Kinect has caused an explosion of innovation in the hobbyist robotics world over the past year. The ASUS Xtion sensor is an improvement from a robotics point-of-view, due to its smaller size, lighter weight, cross-platform open API, and USB-only power requirement.

We’ve only had it for a few days, but here’s what we’ve come up with so far:

We made a simple mounting bracket for now, that is a swap-in for the regular periscope bracket. The Asus sensor snaps into it, and is plugged into a spare USB port.

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We made a basic Oculus module for ROS, the open-source Robot Operating System, running on Linux. Using the Rviz 3D visualization tool (included with ROS), we can get a look at what Oculus is “seeing”, in 3D model space.

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For a quick demo we came up with a “radar” widget for the Oculus remote-control web-client. The window in the upper left (above) shows a top down view of what the sensor is scanning, in the horizontal plane, to a range of 3.5 meters. To code it, we used the java wrapper to the OpenNI API that came with the sensor, to extend our Oculus server software. We would probably expand on this with future software updates, giving Oculus more autonomous navigation capabilities, including room mapping and obstacle avoidance.

To see it all in action, check out the video below:

We’ll refine the design a bit, and have some sort of Xtion mounting bracket available as an option in a few weeks, along with a software update including basic Xtion/Kinect integration … for those who want to seriously kit out their robot.

Oculus in the News

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:48:24 +0000

We’ve received some good press over the past few weeks, mostly from the tech news blogs, helped by the Kickstarter launch of our Oculus Robot. Here’s a shortened list, of some of the higher traffic sites:

pcworld.com – Netbook Robot Lets You be in Two Places at Once
news.discovery.com – Recycle your Laptop into a Telepresence Robot
news.cnet.com – Robotize your Netbook with Oculus Kit
crave.cnet.co.uk – Turn your Netbook into a Robot with Oculus Wheelie Kit
springwise.com – Kit turns any netbook into a telepresence robot
gizmag.com – Oculus Netbook Telepresence Robot
ubergizmo.com – Oculus Telepresence Robot
gigaom.com – Kickstarter Effort Turns Netbooks into Robots
golem.de – Germany
tecnologia.terra.com.br – Brazil
habrahabr.ru – Russia
subitotechs.com – Italy

UPDATE 1/27/2012: another good writeup surfaced at businessinsider.com – “Normally, it would cost thousands to buy a robot with all the capabilities that the Oculus Robot has.”

OcuLED Headlight Accessory

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:06:28 +0000

Above is our prototype, hand-soldered light circuit that served well, and stood up to abuse for a couple months. We’re now confident that the design is sound, so the next step was to design a production circuit board:

We’re sending this PCB layout out to get a prototype made. The board is 100% Arduino compatible, communication and power is supplied by USB, and the circuit allows fine-grained intensity/dimmer control for the high power Cree-LEDs.