Robots and Physical Computing

To read more please click on one of the links below: Posts Entry Scratch speaking German, French, Spanish..... 25 Jan 2019, Speech with EduBlocks on BBC microbit 20 Aug 2018, Micro:bit, Servo control with Micropython or block... 1 Oct 2016, 4Tronix Bit:Bot Neuron Controlled Edge follower 23 Dec 2016, Scratch and web-cams in Scratch 3 3 Jan 2019, USB Robot arm control with Python and Raspberry Pi... 17 Aug 2016, PS3 Controller to move a USB Robot Arm 8 Aug 2017, Top 5 posts in 2018 from the Robots and Physical C... 31 Dec 2018, WebVR 4 Playtime: Putting Objects into Augmented R... 14 Jul 2018, WebVR playtime 2: video, 360 video and objects 27 Feb 2018, All opinions in this blog are the Author'...

Scratch 3 the gift that keeps on giving; including the new extensions are Text to Speech and Translate; Text to speech - does as the name suggests, turns typed in phrases into speech via Amazon Web Services. Translate using Google (and I assume Google Translate?) to translate text between different languages. As an experiment, I waned to play with clapping my hands, have Scratch the Cat ask me to enter a phrase and then convert that into French, German and Spanish with different voices. The resulting code is shown below. It is all started by a loud noise like a hand clap. The two extensions have been added to the blocks and are ready to go. The voice is initially set to Alto and the text-speech block has had the phrase "Please enter a phrase" typed in and says this. The ask block has the same question permanently set and the answer produced gets feed into the translations.  The remaining blocks do essentially the same thing - change the voice; - take the phra...

Scratch 3 was launched on 2nd January 2019, so I wanted to know would Webcams still work with Scratch 3 as it did with Scratch 2. For example, in a previous post  Scratch, webcams, cats and explosions  the cat (Scratch) moved across the screen and a button burst when the object moved in the camera onto it.  Can the same thing be done in Scratch 3? The short answer is yes, but it is done slightly differently. The first change the video capture is not there in the blocks automatically; but is an extension that needs to be added. First, you need to add the extension blocks for video sensing. Go to the little icon at the bottom left of the screen (as shown below) this takes you to the extensions menu. Next, find the Video Sensing option and selected. The webcam, if enabled, with start automatically. A video sensing set of blocks is now in the list of block options.  The rest is very similar to doing this in Scratch 2. Moving ...

How to produce a Microbit neural network This is really part two of a set of post  in response to a question from Carl Simmons ( @Activ8Thinking ) concerning building a   micro:bit ... Microbit Neuron - producing a single neuron using a microbit This post is in response to a question from Carl Simmons ( @Activ8Thinking ) about has anyone built a microbit simple neuron. Quick Overv... USB Robot arm control with Python and Raspberry Pi I was asked recently if the USB robot arm could be programmed - I knew the answer was yes. The Arm came from the CBiS Education Robot Arm ... Micro:bit, Servo control with Micropython or blocks You can control servos (small ones) from a Micro:Bit directly. Following a link from the David Whale (Twitter  @ whaleygeek ) , thank you, t... WebVR 5 Playtime: Augmented Reality to display Videos In previous posts ( post 1 , post 2 ) I have raved over the brilliant combination of Mozi...

Video 1: How to produce a simple web-based augmented reality application. Video 2:  Using AFrame and AR.js to create AR - this time adding an image and rotation to an AR object. Related Links Basic guide and starting point  https://aframe.io/blog/arjs/#move-the-camera-or-the-marker Example: White block (needs the Hiro marker)  https://gregarious-fibre.glitch.me/ Example: An image is added to block (needs the Hiro marker)  https://glitch.com/~dandy-custard Further guidance on setting up AR through AR.js  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/07/webvr-3-playtime-augmented-reality.html Further guidance adding objects into AR  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/07/webvr-4-playtime-putting-objects-into.html Guide on adding video into AR  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/10/webvr5-playtime-augmented-reality-to.html   All opinions in this blog are the Author's and sho...