Sunday, August 21, 2011

science!


My husband is a software engineer who loves technology and even spent a few years in a robotics club. So, it is no surprise there is a lot of technology, robotics, and science in this house. A is a science/engineering kid like his dad. He loves it. We build from kits, program things, sometimes follow instructions, and sometimes come up with some fun ideas - usually inspired by something we have seen or read.


On Saturday, after a morning of watching some robotics competition inspiration and looking up fun looking projects, we decided to try something new. Brice found an application where we could visually map the wii-mote and the wii balance board onto displays and graphs. The boys loved seeing how movement affected displays, and played around with measurement and finding a balanced center. Even G thought this was cool.


From here my guys plan to create a program for the wii-mote and wii balance board to interface with and control a LEGO Mindstorms robot! Sweet! Can't wait.

9 comments:

Ciara Brehony said...

Wow! Very cool!

Thanks so much for your lovely comment over on Milkmoon. :-)
C x

Tara said...

This is so cool! The wii/Lego mindstorms interface should be amazing.

MJ said...

OH wow! So cool! I wish me or my husband had the gift of science ! My son craves it and I can barely keep up!!

Melissa said...

I hardly understand any of this (I've haven't heard of mindstormers), but it sure sounds cool and fun!

Francesca said...

too scientific for me~ :)

Christina Pilkington said...

I think my son with love this kind of thing when he gets a little bit older. Also, I enjoyed reading your interview over at the sattvick family website.

Helena said...

Denise, this is how small the world is: Just today we just watched the video (my robot is better than your robot) that you linked to! We were at our First Lego League training session, where my girl and I learned to program our first mindstorm robot. We had SO much fun! Thank you for sharing that link—it looks like there are a LOT more videos to enjoy :)

I love the project your boys are doing—what an amazing idea! I really can't wait to hear more about it.

We love science here too. Even though we're a family of musicians/artists/writers, we have a real love of anything science too. It actually feels really closely connected. Just like so, so many things in life :)

denise said...

Helena - See, we are in sync! ;)

I have always been an artist/musician/creative type and science/math were not my strongest suit. But I love learning new things and science has so much to offer in *possibilities*. I love that. And I love how my 8 year old has such a natural talent in math/science/engineering (like his dad) - makes me want to just dive in there with him and go go go! :)

Timo said...

Thats very interesting.
Where can i find the Programm you showed on your Mac to readout the Wii Board and Controller?

Thank you