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Showing posts from November, 2017

Code: read

Humans are said to have 5 senses in total.  Common , clearly isn't one of them. But - jokes aside - computers all around us are growing ever more intelligent (so we hear).  They can play chess.  Drive cars.  Some might even do these things at the same time.  Without crashing (quite literally). Likewise, we've been making steady progress equipping Rosie Patrol with some useful skills.  Skills needed to bring much needed law and order to the world.  She can move .  She can see .  She can sense .  And in our last episode , she began to read.  With a little helping hand from some (considerably) bigger computers at the mothership that is Google. But can she really read?  You know.  Read out aloud ? True to our style, there is only one way to find out.  It's time to invoke Code: Red Read.  And take the power of reading to the next level (or page). All superheroes need: One Raspberry Pi 3, running Raspbian OS.  Connected to the Internet. Computer from which you a

a, b, see, d

Here's a deeply philosophical conundrum that we've been struggling with in between Rosie Patrol's crime-fighting escapades: Do robots need to be able to read their own instruction manuals?  And if so, do they need to read an instruction manual first in order to learn how to read one? We'll be honest.  We're not quite sure what the answer should be.  Besides, the question is actually quite silly.  And probably pointless.  But wouldn't it be handy if your robot superhero could read human text?  Because, then, it could read danger signs posted outside alligator pens (where evil masterminds apparently hang out).  After all, Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision are all the rage these days.  It helps computers make sense of the world around them, and possibly , makes them seem more intelligent.  Well, more intelligent than us humans, supposedly . And that's not hard. So without further delay, let's get Rosie Patrol to read some signs on her

Beam me up, Rosie!

How do you get from A to B? You can't, as As and Bs are just letters in the alphabet. But if A is your house, and B is a meerkat village at your favourite safari park, you'd probably use a device equipped with GPS.  Not to be confused with UPS, who will deliver you your chosen meerkat through the post. And why on Earth would Rosie Patrol need one? Precisely, it's because she is on Earth that she needs one. Because our planet is rather big. Big enough to get lost in. And we don't want to lose our friendly plastic boxes on wheels. And maybe, eventually when she's clever enough, she'll go and defeat baddies on her own. And return home afterwards for a well deserved Earl Grey tea. Besides, why wouldn't we want to add another three letter acronym to Rosie Patrol's repertoire? All superheroes need: One Raspberry Pi 3, running Raspbian OS Computer from which you are connecting to the Raspberry Pi Probably the most important bit: a GPS r