Lego Mindstorm NXT (Teaser)

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Yesterday, Laura and I headed over with a video camera and smartphones armed and loaded.  Lego was coming in to show off their new robot the Lego Mindstorm NXT.  I've been getting into some robot building of my own lately (I'm still an extreme beginner) and had seen some buzz around the NXT.  I figured it would be neat, but thought to myself, "it's a cool could it really be"?  Let me tell you my friends, it is VERY cool!  So cool that a 10 year old can build something awesome with it pretty easily, yet a 35 year old adult (or however old) could customize the open source firmware, write a program to receive blue tooth signals that would command the 3 rotating motors while reading from the different sensors (touch, sound, light & ultra-sonic) to build an extremely cool robot to do who knows what?!?!  To make a long story snagged some people to talk to, we video'd them (sorry if the camera was shakey, my programmer arms are made of jelly) and we're working on getting a video ready as I type this.  Expect to see it very soon.  I was so excited after seeing some of the possibilities that I went and ordered one for myself when I got back to my desk.  This is going to be fun!

Note: Lego did NOT pay us to say this  Wink

The team that builds Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) was also there to show off MSRS, what it could do and how you could easily write code against the NXT to do some really neat stuff.  One of the demos was a guy who had built an NXT robot that connected to his PC through blue tooth so he could control it remotely as well as having his cameraphone that was mounted on top of it that would send video back to the PC through the NXT while driving it around.  Sick!

Check out the photos I snapped with my smartphone while we were there (apologies for the low quality).

Again, there will be a video coming soon.  Watch for it!

The Discussion

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    Matthew Mushall

    You sound just like a kid in a toy store, Erik.  I love LEGOs...this looks awesome!  I would have gone bonkers for this 10 - 20 years ago!  Is it just me or does the head bear a slight resemblance to Johnny 5 from Short Circuit?  Anyway, why did you have to dissapoint with no video?!!!  Seriously, this is one of the most awesome things you've ever hyped - and no video!  Hurry up!  I want to see a 10 promotional video for the NXT.  Honestly...what could be cooler than a working robot...a LEGO working robot!  h00t!

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    Matthew Mushall

    OHFG!!!  Erik, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen done with LEGOs!!!  I must get me one of those!  I grew up wanting my own Nova Robotics S.A.I.N.T. prototype #5!  YAY! Number 5 is alive!

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