Classmate PC - Front Panel

[Trent B]

A few thoughts, how would they implement this. unless commander stands somehow infront and the drivers are behind a board or commander is elevated or something.

Intrigues me though, would have to solve the video bandwidth issues though. Could be cool in a game that requires a lot of precision.

[daltore]

The first thing that strikes me about using a laptop as a drivers station instead of the blue box is that you can use any computer device to control the robot (not just standard USB joystick interfaces). This means you could set the robot up as a servo, using a mouse on a scale model of the field, or something similar.

The specific example I'd be most excited about is something I've been thinking about on and off over the past couple years; the Emotiv headset. The only problem there being the speed of the computer you're allowed to use.

If they do decide to use the Classmate as the drivers station, I wouldn't be too worried about I/O. There are lots of breakout boards for computer I/O (only prohibition being cost, but this is FIRST, and as has been mentioned, NI is one of the vendors of such products). And if they don't, you can always get a cheap USB joystick from Goodwill, crack it open, and tear all the wires off the board. Voila, instant I/O expansion board. If you get a gamepad, you might even have some digital outs between the LED's and the vibrating motors.

I think it would be a very interesting use of the computer if they blacked out all the windows in front of the drivers and you had to use the camera

[synth3tk]

Oh great, look what you just did. The GDC will probably find ways to use this to torture teams in 2011. I hope you're happy now.

[daltore]

Please, they probably already know what the game is going to be. And trust me, there is nothing sadistic that I can think of that they haven't already. Every year, it's the same discussion:

"Last year was so hard! There's no POSSIBLE way they could come up with something harder this year."

They always do.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

Oh great, look what you just did. The GDC will probably find ways to use this to torture teams in 2011. I hope you're happy now.

That much time? You underestimate the GDC pretty badly.

Originally Posted by daltore

Please, they probably already know what the game is going to be. And trust me, there is nothing sadistic that I can think of that they haven't already. Every year, it's the same discussion:

"Last year was so hard! There's no POSSIBLE way they could come up with something harder this year."

They always do.

Oh? I've got an idea that I'm not sure they've come up with... No, I'm not going to post it. Don't need them getting more evil ideas now, do we?

But, they probably don't know fully what the game is going to be. I'm pretty sure (from Bill's Blog again) that they have a general idea, but I'm willing to guess that they don't have specifics (like point values) in place yet.

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by daltore

Please, they probably already know what the game is going to be. And trust me, there is nothing sadistic that I can think of that they haven't already. Every year, it's the same discussion:

"Last year was so hard! There's no POSSIBLE way they could come up with something harder this year."

They always do.

Haha, I know. I was just messing around.

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally Posted by EricH

Oh? I've got an idea that I'm not sure they've come up with... No, I'm not going to post it. Don't need them getting more evil ideas now, do we?

Give the GDC ideas? How can you think that a bad thing?
If our ideas really do influence the GDC's decisions it means that the potential to manipulate the game through reverse psychology could be practically infinite. (insert evil maniacal laughter here).
...
Or they might already have the next five games already figured out, and are laughing at how far behind we are. Gosh the GDC have a fun job ^_^

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Trent B

A few thoughts, how would they implement this. unless commander stands somehow infront and the drivers are behind a board or commander is elevated or something.

Intrigues me though, would have to solve the video bandwidth issues though. Could be cool in a game that requires a lot of precision.

Tinted glasses, maybe? Or a hood or something. It would be really cool but probably will never happen.

[jmanela]

just some food for thought, maybe the drive coach will be the only one to look at the pc for the first 30 seconds or so, but he cannot see the field.