[rsilverstein]

Everything so far has been focused on the robots... what about the OIs?

The coolest ones I have seen have been:
1138
They had a 3-part arm and for their OI, a scale replica of that arm on a platform. The had potentiometers at each joint so the controller would just move the model arm on the OI however he pleased, and the actual robot would do the exact same thing. They had markings for the different heights of the rack too.

1572
They had a claw that moved on a vertical track. The controller put on a "glove" to control the claw. A switch to move it up and down the track, and his hand to control the actual claw itself. With the "glove", if the user closed his/her hand, the claw would close. If the user changed the angle of his/her wrist, the angle of the claw would move respectively.

What are other things that people noticed?
Post pictures?