S) The idea I have in mind is to record the movement of the robot, so that it can build
on it's internal mind-map as it moves around the room and finds new objects.

D) Well it's easy for me to do some abstract thinking here, while you do the
groundwork :)

S) Sounds like a good plan.

I managed to put in about 5 hours over the weekend on my Computer Vision test
harness. I've now combined my earlier pole detection code with the new polar
coordinate logic. I've also added a graphical radar which plots the x, y
coordinates of the geodesic poles. Looks pretty cool!
I need to optimise the pole detection code though; The System.Drawing assembly
in .Net is too slow. I am going to interact with the image directly through unsafe
code. I will then be able to start testing the logics accuracy over distance.

I will happily send you the program when I am happy with it!

Looking at the test harness so far, the robot could record its movements and adjust
the pole positions accordingly, without having to detect them a second time, however,
the robot should continually look for poles and update its mind-map; which
points to a problem - the robot must be able to differentiate each pole - perhaps
each pole needs to have its own color?

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S) Yeah, what happened to Robot Wars? I watched the show (on and off) a couple years
ago, and it seemed to disappear. I think the show recently moved channels for one
series - www.five.tv/programmes/robotwars - maybe you can catch the re-run?

D) Unless they reappear on the PBS here, most probably not. I'm vastly disappointed
with what passes for TV here, and have reduced my cable subscription to bare minimum
(and they still give me five extra shopping channels for free, in the vain hope I
may watch them someday).

S) Sounds much like our cable deal :)

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D) The moment you get its orientational logic faster (and smarter?) than the eye/hand
(/brain) of the person working the remote, you'd kill them all.

S) very true

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D) And some fighters they are - they can't even tie their shoelaces :)

S) lol - That would be a real breakthrough! That one ability alone would be enough
to scare off the other robots!
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D) Does the future robot have a name yet?

S) Not yet - I'm struggling with a name. I may get inspired when I see it
walking about and bumping into things :)

Kind Regards
Simon