We have Keepon control!

Yay! Thanks to mAngO on the comment thread for my last keepon post, we now know that grounding out the bus during keepon's powerup allows you to act as the master to the bus! This means we can now control the motors and sound, as can be seen in the video above. I'm just controlling motors there, using the Control Program for Android to send OSC messages to a python script I wrote. The python talks to the USB serial port, and the arduino turns the commands coming over serial into I2C to go to keepon.

All the source code for this is available in completely raw, uncommented form at

http://www.github.com/qdot/keepoff

So, that's the first part finished. Now it's on to polishing things out and figuring out the rest of the parts of the hardware we don't have access to yet. I'm keeping the github issues list updated with things we have left to do.

UPDATE 2013-06-01:

While this post still has relevant information, the engineers at BeatBots have created a far more stable firmware. I highly recommend using their MyKeepon firmware, as it fixes a lot of the timing issues the KeepOff firmware had. The MyKeepon firmware is available at:

https://github.com/beatbots/MyKeepon

UPDATE 2011-11-14:

Keepon hacking has made a major step! Thanks to mAngO on the comment thread for my last keepon post, we now know that grounding out the bus during keepon's powerup allows you to act as the master to the bus! There's a Proof of Concept video posted on youtube now.. I'm leaving the rest of this post as it was when I first wrote it for history sake, but the information in it plus knowing that you just need to hold down the I2C lines for a second when the keepon powers up are enough to actually get control going. The reverse engineering document and code in the keepoff repository will be updated to reflect this information.

I'm really not sure I've never spent so much time cursing at something so adorable. The past week has been yelling, crying, and generally losing my emotional shit toward a few servos wrapped in a weird, sticky plasticy skin, better known as the MyKeepon Dancing Robot.

How better to atone for my sin of the vivisection of the most adorable christmas toy this year, than writing up what I found. That way, future generations can avoid the pain inflicted on it, and the pain it inflicted on me.

But good lord, it's so fucking CUTE.

Usually I wouldn't write this up until after I had things completely finished, but I gave myself a week deadline for that, and that deadline passed 2 days ago. I'm still in the middle of a few different ideas for reversing it, but those could take a while (stupid real life getting in the way of toy hacking), so I figured I'd dump what information I do have now.

Oh frabjous fucking day. The Microsoft Kinect SDK is out. Along with a license that takes a very, very nasty FAQ to explain.

On this big day in UI development, let's take a look over the current console controls landscape, and what it means to non-game developers.

Why focus on game consoles controls? They've driven down sensor prices like crazy, due to mass manufacturing and required price points for game sales. They've established more than a few careers of non-game-developers now. Uses of the kinect and the wiimote for projects not pertaining to their original console have been all over the media lately. Keeping a forecast of where development for these technologies is going means we have a better idea of how to ride the wave when it comes.

Disclaimers

• In terms of licensing issues, I am not a lawyer. I do not play one on TV. However, I do have a lawyer fursona.
• While I am part of the OpenKinect project, I do not speak for others involved in the project. All opinions expressed here are my own, and all cursing is far fucking better than anyone else on the project could turn out, so while I may share my source code, I'm not giving them rights to that.
• I strive to keep all the information as correct as possible, but, well, I've been drinking.
• I am not a game developer. I am a reverse engineer that specializes in controls and interface devices. My view of this hardware is purely from the driver and capabilities side.
• I have not directly used the Move SDK or Kinect SDK. But I have read some articles and created very strong opinions, which means they are valid for internet consumption.
• This article is only about reversing/using alternative console controllers, not about reversing consoles themselves. There's a completely different history to that which would take much more than a blog post to cover, though I will admit that it does have some influence on the information here..

This summer is shaping up to be a busy one...

I'm speaking at Maker Faire. Twice, even!

• 2011-05-21 3:30pm - OpenYou.org Presentation, Health 2.0 Stage
• 2011-05-21 6:00pm - OpenKinect Presentation, Main Stage

Then there's the Quantified Self Conference on May 28-29th, 2011, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. There's no central presentation, but honestly, I probably won't stop talking at any point during the 2 days, as I have a table at the expo, plus will be helping out with the health hardware session and the hackathon.

On June 23rd, I'll be doing a presentation on the OpenKinect project at NetExplorateur Zoom 2011 in Paris.

I'm not really used to writing about hardware that's hardly to prototype stage yet, but damn, I cannot wait 'til this comes out so I can start reverse engineering it.

Novint, the company that manufacturers the Falcon haptic device (that I wrote/maintain the cross-platform libnifalcon for - if you aren't familiar with the falcon, check out this rather exhaustive article I wrote on it a couple of years ago), recently announced a merger with another company.

The other company in the deal, Forcetek Enterprises, doesn't even seem to exist outside of the PR about this merger (UPDATE: Ok, I actually found their old website finally. Apparently this was shown at E3?). Successful stealth mode.

What came out of the merger...

is a partial exoskeleton for gaming.