Entries For: April 2007
2007-04-27
Development progress
by David BourgeoisAfter a few weeks away from the lab, I'm now back at work full time dedicated to tux. The future tasks will be to improve the documentation, update the firmware to fix a couple of things and develop some applications for the end user.
Tuxsetup
A new tuxsetup has been released, yes it's not final yet but it's out there for a week and we didn't get much bug reports on that one. Rémi [1], neimad, doegox and some others did a wonderful job at fixing bugs, improving stability, security and adding some functionalities to the daemon. Rémi also improved the API a lot. It seems we have something that can be used :-), it's quite stable and nearly all functions of tux are covered by the API. Now we really need to get some nice scripts and applications. The graphical interface (tuxgi/gtdi) has been reworked already, and now that the daemons are automatically launched by udev when fux is plugged, it's pretty easy to use it. Just plug the dongle, turn tux on and type 'tuxgi'.
Wiki
The wiki has been reorganized a bit and slightly skinned to better fit with the community portal. I think it's now ready to share it with more people. I added a link from the developer corner. It doesn't use ldap yet so you'll have to create a new account to participate.
The wiki was used from the beginning but it wasn't very clear whether it wouldn't conflict with the main community portal. After some time, it appeared that it's a very good place for community members and specially developers to share ideas, links, tests, reviews and anything they're doing that might be of some help to others. It's easy, we have history, can easily reorganize things, etc. Well, that's what a wiki is for :-)
Firmware
I'm also going to use the wiki from now on for my own developments on tux's firmware in order to share what's going on but also to get feedback from you. And also if you want to join me in the dark side of the hardware/firmware, you're welcome :-)
And while I'll be working on the firmware, I'm going to add doxygen tags for it. The topics are:
- Standalone behavior - description of the standalone behavior that should be integrated into Tux.
- Remote mode - control your tux with the remote only, no computer here.
- Light sensor - schema, measurement and linearization of the light measurement.
- Tux ID - adding an identification code in tux firmware.
- Sleep mode - adding a sleep mode in tux to increase battery life.
Widgets
I was just saying that the daemon and API were so much improved that we could finally use it. Rémi now works on a widget manager and a few widgets dedicated to tux.
What are tux widgets?
'Tux Widgets' is a new development in progress in order to easily manage multiple lightweight applications for tux from a central point. Widgets will offer a lot of nice little functionalities to tux that you can add, enable, disable and configure to your taste. Widgets examples could be: wheather forecast, email notification, alarm clock, news reader, audio player, presentation heper, etc.
Why widgets?
Small python scripts are easily done and there's only one small step towards bigger scripts or small applications. Packaging these into widgets would offer an easy access of your scripts to any end user. Widgets should be easy to build and easy to install. That way anybody can quickly peronalize a set of behaviors for Tux.
I added all I know on this topic on the wiki, there's also a list of all the widgets that are going to be developed first, have a look by yourself at http://wiki.tuxisalive.com/index.php/Tux's_Widgets. All comments are welcome, that will help us develop applications that better suit your needs.
That's it for now, going back at work.
Cheers, David
| [1] | Rémi is the main programmer of KySoH/C2ME if you didn't know yet |
2007-04-10
Tux Droid...a smart companion?
by Sebastien DominguesHave you already googled on the words companions, agents, robots, droids, AI, smart...? You will find so many links, reviews, white papers or theories. So can we then fully describe everything in one page when thousands of articles are available? Hmmm...not sure. Furthermore, most of these articles are quite serious. But us, are we serious? Are we going to surprise you if we tell you that Tux Droid is a story about creativity, sharing and communication
We truly believe that computing must be fun, easy and accessible to everybody. Are you proud of your mouse or your keyboard? Cool, so are we...(even if the only mouse we really fell in love with when we were young was...Minnie). But wouldn't it be cool to have a peripheral device for your computer that is just more than a peripheral... A device that can bring fun, emotions and even be functional. Let's not even call it a device anymore. We want a companion, smart and funny...a companion you can communicate through, play, program, have fun with and laugh everyday. And if people ask us: "Is it useful?" Hmmm...Maybe not but that's why we absolutely need one.
In the era of Internet, in a world of computers, in a web of communities, at the border of real and virtual, we really wanted to launch a smart companion Who will bring Fun And Freedom. And depending of your background or your personality, you can envision Tux droid in different dimensions:
- Tux droid is just a robot. Yes indeed, we can see him as a robot flapping the wings, dancing around, talking etc...Why not? You can develop some new firmware and train you robotic skills.
- Tux droid is a Human Machine Interface (HMI). Yes, also. Remote control, TTS, actuators and sensors can be used to interface with your computer. Check what Tola is thinking about it.
- Tux droid as a PC friend. Tux is more than a HMI. Yes, we know, some people will tell us than nothing is better than a real human and warm friendship and we fully agree. But isn't it cool to bring emotions and make tux sociable and intelligent...in brief...alive. We can start by naming Tux droid. like Thomas already did. You can program simple scripts and Tux will be your alarm clock, your game buddy, a chatbot, a teacher (connected with Gcompris).
- Tux droid as a Web buddy. Of course, Tux can be your internet companion. By using the TTS he can feed you with news or information (RSS feed). You can broadcast your internet radio. What about a bid alert on EBay?
- A communication media: Tux droid is a friend with friends. We couldn't imagine a companion without the communication aspects: a community of Tux connected to a server, Tux as a VoIP phone, Tux-chat (a buddy who alerts you if somebody wants to chat and mimics all emoticons).
Seb and Thierry
