My robot...

...wouldn't be too far off from this. Brilliant work!

Mujaki's HINA is my ideal robot! She's piloted with her own custom made controller board, so don't ask about her AI. (I've been seeing a lot of questions regarding that) She's a little more than a foot tall, she runs on a 12 Volt hobby robot battery, and she contains two gyros for stability.

She's also a great hand around the house!

HINA ver. RF09 - Mujaki


Please check out HINA's specs on Mujaki's site: http://clockwork.shikisokuzekuu.net/HINA.html

Congratulations Mujaki on a beautiful creation!

Summer 2009 Update

I now live in the San Francisco Bay Area in beautiful Berkeley, California. I work at the Stupid Fun Club. What I do there is secret-shmecret, so don't ask. ;p

Instead of telling you about my bosses, Will Wright or Michael Winter, let me tell you about this guy:

Dean Kamen is a famous inventor who is probably best known for designing what would become the Segway. His company, DEKA, makes lots of cool things, including this water purification device:

Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen is also responsible for the FIRST competition, which I wish I participated in in High School. I hope I can be involved with it in some way in the future:

http://www.usfirst.org/

He's definitely an inspirational guy and I hope I can meet him some day. To be honest, I only heard of him recently. It's kind of funny how much more in tune I am with the Japanese Robotics industry over the US one. Maybe I'm just tired of hearing about war robots.. I met the Segway distributors in Tokyo a year and a half ago at Silicon Graphics Japan, and it's general manager named Dai. Great guy. Anyway, Dean Kamen, awesome innovator trying to benefit the world and raise awareness and fun in Science and Technology.

Featured Publications

Occasionally, I'm lucky enough to have something I've worked on be published. Here's a list of the known articles that I or my projects have been mentioned in:

Web Publications:
03/23/2009 - Carnegie Mellon - "Souda/Lockheed Martin Project featured on Carnegie Mellon's Homepage"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

02/06/2009 - Game Career Guide - "Postcards from the Global Game Jam"
There is an image of me working on the third page

02/05/2009 - BoingBoing - "Report from the Global Game Jam"
My team appears in one of the videos

02/04/2009 - ETC Global News - "LOCKHEED MARTIN PARTNERS WITH THE ETC AND MAKES QUITE A SPLASH IN THE MEDIA"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

01/29/2009 - Wallstreet Journal Market Watch - "Lockheed Martin Partners With Carnegie Mellon to Fund Innovative Research and Development Projects"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

01/29/2009 - Yahoo! Finance - "Lockheed Martin Partners With Carnegie Mellon to Fund Innovative Research and Development Projects"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

01/29/2009 - MSN Money - "Lockheed Martin Partners With Carnegie Mellon to Fund Innovative Research and Development Projects"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

01/29/2009 - Philidelphia Inquirer - "Lockheed Martin, Fraunhofer USA put brains to work amid downturn"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

01/29/2009 - Tribune Review - "CMU center's latest venture imaginable"
My project (otherwise known as SOUDA) is featured

10/24/2008 - ETC Global News - "ETC Students from Japan, Korea, and North America flock to the 2008 Tokyo Game Show"
Mentioned in article

10/24/2008 - ETC Global News - "ETC-Global Japan Mini East Coast Trip to Tokyo"
Mentioned in article

10/24/2008 - ETC Global News - "Robots, Robots and Interactivity: ETC-Global JAPAN visits Osaka University"
Mentioned in article

9/25/2008 - ETC Global News - "ETC- Global JAPAN enjoys exciting Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada"
Mentioned in article

9/25/2008 - ETC Global News - "ETC-Global JAPAN Gets a Visit from Ira Fay, Game Designer, Electronic Arts"
Mentioned in article

3/31/2008 - ETC Global News - "ETC Japan Official Opening a Major Media Event for Osaka"
Mentioned in article

3/30/2008 - ETC Global News - "ETC-Japan Visits CyLab Kobe"
Mentioned in article

12/13/2007 - ETC Global News - "BVW 2007 on YouTube"
My world "Kah'h Ki'i" is featured in the 2007 BVW Show

12/6/2007 - Pittsburgh Post Gazette - "CMU showcases virtual worlds"
My world "Kah'h Ki'i" is featured in the 2007 BVW Show

12/5/2007 - Pop City - "CMU Building Virtual Worlds class draws high profile companies to local talent"
My world "Kah'h Ki'i" is featured in the 2007 BVW Show

11/26/2007 - ETC Global News -"Pittsburgh XO Game Jam"
My team, Team Ethiopia, won 2nd Place

More to come.

Affordable Personal Robotics - 2009 Edition

Most everyone that knows me knows I LOVE robots. I've loved robots ever since I was very young and even the handle: Infinity Series has absolutely EVERYTHING to do with robotics (but that's a story for another day). If you like robots too, but don't have large government grants or hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on a Honda Asimo, I've researched a few "cheap" outlets for buying kick-a** robots!

My situation might be different than yours. I want a personal robot that I can customize so I can consider it my very own. I would like to dress it up, paint it and even animate it the way I animate a 3D character model. I might not have the money to get what I want, but times are good, and I'm close.

Here is my 2009 wish list:


Zeno - Hanson Robotics / Dr. David Hanson - $1500



Why this is cool: Hanson Robotics does one thing, hands down, better than anyone else in the robotics industry: Realistic human expression. This is precisely why Zeno has a face. You might know Hanson Robotics from their Einstein robot which was a joint project with my buddies at KAIST or Jules, the disembodied human head, often times consider off-puttingly creepy for it's realism. Even Kokoro's HRP4 and DER2 faces don't compare to Hanson's proprietary skin technique. I think Zeno's face is really cool and expressive, but I wish I could change the hair... If I got one of these, I would definitely chop of the hair and remove the black cloth on his body. It should also be stated that for the level of quality that you're getting, $1500 is a steal! And, supposing you live in America, shipping from Hanson Robotics's lab in Texas wouldn't be prohibitively expensive.



Manoi PF01 - Kyosho Corporation / 高橋智隆 (Tomotaka Takahashi) - Compete Set: 283,500円 ($3000) / Base Set: 199,500円 ($2100)



Kyosho's Manoi PF01 Complete Set Webpage

Why this is cool: Tomotaka Takahashi of Kyoto University is a superstar robot designer. He has fantastic taste and styles robots like a mangaka. The Manoi PF01 is one of his most stylish robots. I've seen a lot of the people who've purchased them do great custom jobs on it, and I'd love to do a gunmetal gray with pin-up art up the side of it. The price is good, and they can get away with it because fans'll pick it up for the style and for Asian robot battle comps. (Robot battling in America is more destructive and industrial with spinning buzz-saws, etc.) I might like to do casual, asian style battling someday, but that's not quite my bag. Also, the PF01 isn't my FAVORITE model... If I could get a hold of his Female Type (FT Model)... I'm not sure I could hold back on that purchase. Absolutely gorgeous!


Do you think there might come a day when I could fully design the outside look and movements of a robot? That would be a dream come true...

- Benjamin Taylor

Glenelg - The Making Of

Two months ago, I set out creating a 3D character from the ground up with the intention of using new dynamic techniques available in Maya 2008. Details about that process are available in the links below. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Glenelg Link Index

Concept and Ideation

Building the Head + Cloth Physics

Building the Body and other Base Geometry

UV Unwrapping + Texturing

Environment Building

Shader Development

Wrapping Up