In my work as a software developer, I have found that it is often more important to know where to look for information, rather than having all possibly relevant information memorized. The first step, then, is to allow greater access to information.

At first glance, the internet would be perfect for this. The sum total of humanity’s knowledge, available for the taking, mostly free of charge. However, accessing the internet requires a huge cost in infrastructure. The required infrastructure can be broken down as follows:
A device capable of accessing the internet, usually a computer of some variety
An active network connection
The first requirement can be satisfied by something like the OLPC Project’s XO Laptop. This is a computer which is designed to be used in the middle of nowhere, capable of being powered by a foot-treadle similar to old-fashioned sewing machines. It is capable of surviving shocks and drops that would cause a normal computer to die, as it has no moving parts. It is also capable of both 802.11b/g networking (the type of wireless access many of you no doubt have in your homes) or 802.11s “mesh networking”, to allow users to connect to the internet over much further distances than normal by routing the signal through other connected machines. The laptop is available through a unique “buy one get one” plan, where the only way someone in a developed country such as Canada, the U.S., or most of Europe can buy a machine is by also donating one to a developing country such as most of Africa.

The second requirement, however, is much more difficult to satisfy. The underlying network infrastructure that we all take for granted is horrendously expensive to create and maintain, and most companies aren’t willing or able to dedicate the time and money required to install it in developing countries where the potential subscriber base is low and the income of the average person is lower. The obvious choice is satellite-based communications, with one sat-modem capable of being shared between many XO Laptops, however bandwidth pricing on satellite communications is still very expensive, and very slow especially for a shared connection. This can be ameliorated somewhat with a filtering proxy sitting on the remote end of the connection — a system which strips all images, videos, and other high-bandwidth data out of the connection unless an administrator overrides it, leaving only plain-text which can be easily compressed to minimize data usage. The above setup would allow people to search for things like plans for an artesian well, and only download the diagrams which are actually needed to complete the project.

Global access to information is becoming more and more important as time goes on. Some countries, such as France, have even declared access to the internet a basic human right. Despite this, there are many problems which must be addressed before such access can be made truly universal. This is one solution; what is yours?

I have the base-unit design worked out — it’s just a simple microcontroller controlling two servos and an antenna-style bump sensor.  Because low cost is one of the reasons for this design, and because the units will be small enough that having load-bearing members isn’t really an issue, I decided to build the chassis out of Mecano and use Lego tank-treads for the drive train (the gearboxes/motors were taken from a WowWee RoboPet that I purchased for $5 from a thrift store — fully functional, except it came with no remote so all it would do is sit there and make noises every once in a while to ensure I knew it was still there).  Unfortunately, as I went to the local Big Box of Evilness store (read: Wal-Mart) I came to a somewhat frightening realization — Apparently toys which encourage creativity such as Lego, Mecano, and even building blocks, are no longer considered “popular”, or “cool” enough to sit on a shelf beside the latest flavor of the week.  This is of special concern, because my fiance and I have lately spent a lot of time discussing how we are going to raise our as-yet-conceptual children (to anyone who might read this and panic — family members etc. — don’t worry, they are VERY conceptual — we don’t want kids until after Stevie is done her masters, so probably at least six years).

I’m working on a new version of DanteSL to enable multithreading, since the login process freezing the program temporarily is the biggest problem I can find with it.  Motion is going to have to wait, as I haven’t been able to find any functions in the libSecondLife code which would allow me to impliment movement.  I’m also working on another version, to be called something entirely different, using AIML as the A.I. engine instead of Dante.  The custom AIML interpreter will be closed source, and the overall product will be commercial in nature — essentially, I’ll be providing the bot and custom “scripts” for it as an advertising resource for customers.

I’m getting much closer to actually starting my major robotics project of the year — I was worried about having to pay for custom fabrication on the body, but as it turns out, my brother has just purchased a farm, complete with — oh rapture of raptures — a fully equipped machine shop.  He’s going to be selling most of the equipment, to help pay of the mortgage on the farm, but he has decided to keep enough of it around for me to “play” when I go out to visit.

Ciao!

Features:

• Login as any Second Life character
• Learns as you talk to it
• Read-Only and Write-Only database modes

This is a quick and dirty release, I only started working on this project yesterday so things like motion and friend requests aren’t currently handled.

Requirements: Second Life account, Active Internet Connection, .NET 2.0 Framework

Known Bugs: Main program freezes when you connect, until the client has fully connected or given up.

Source code and binary files:

http://www.technomagia.tk/projects/dantesl/DanteSL0.1.1-SRC.zip

http://www.technomagia.tk/projects/dantesl/DanteSL0.1.1-BIN.zip

EDIT:  I just realized I left out instructions for compiling the source — Source is written in VS2008, not sure if it will work in any earlier version.  You must have both Dante (http://www.dantebot.com) and libSecondLife (http://www.libsecondlife.org) installed for the program to compile, and you may have to update the references to reflect the path you have installed it in.  Since Dante is written using VB6, I highly doubt it will run under Mono in Linux, although all the C# components should be fine.