Student Makes Real-Life Portal Turret 91
lukehopewell1 writes "A Penn State robotics student has gone to the effort of building a working, automated turret from the video game series Portal. Powered by a webcam, Arduino boards and hacked up USB-missile launchers, this is one serious piece of kit that is just as adorable as its in-game counterpart. "
Not enough bullets (Score:5, Funny)
And it doesn't even fire the entire bullet.
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It does fire the entire foam dart.
Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
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No hard feelings.
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Hand over your geek card.
The quote is "Is anyone there?"
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There you are! It was a trap.
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Seductive? That's creepy. They sounded like small children.
Re:Yes (Score:5, Funny)
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It's from Penn State, what else would you expect?
Penn State engineering student here. Our football program is screwed up, not the engineering department. But who cares, let's continue making jokes about people that had nothing at all to do with the events that transpired.
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Awesome! (Score:5, Interesting)
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Good hours. Great pay. Check your soul at the door, unless you're a True Believer (TM). How do you know if you're a TB? Here's a simple test:
We have to give up certain rights, like the 4th ammendment in order to preserve our rights.
If you agree, you're a TB. If you think it's bullshit but shove it into the back of your mind and remind yourself that somebody has to feed your kids, you're not a TB. You're just a douche. You'll probably get the job and do OK though. If you wonder what kind of dystopian
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Great job kid! Keep it up and you could have an awesome job at the army corps of engineers, or at some other defense contractor. Great work.
Um... did you know that the Army Corps of Engineers has almost nothing to do with defense contracts?
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We sell those too.
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He should send his resume to Weyland-Yutani - they might be hiring.
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Great job kid! Keep it up and you could have an awesome job at the army corps of engineers, or at some other defense contractor. Great work.
Or alternatively he could get a grown up job.
Whyyyyy? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't blame you.
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and why is the robot shooting for your balls? I think it's trying to stop you from breeding ;)
Turret dialogue (Score:5, Funny)
"Someone is coming. Quick, tell them you see them."
"Why? I don't see them."
"It scares the hell out of people."
"R-O-F-L! All right. I see you."
"Ask her if the's still there."
"Are you still there?...She didn't say anything."
"No shit, Sherlock."
"What should I say now?"
"Come out, bitch!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz5cl131KTk [youtube.com]
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I had lols XD
Mini-gun (Score:5, Interesting)
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I was wondering if he would replicate the firing mechanism shown in the game, where bullets are loaded from a hopper and shot out using an electric firing mechanism (no powder required). Now that would be impressive.
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No need for magazines, there are plenty of airsoft guns that fire from hoppers. That way the inside of the turret could be a hopper like GP suggested.
control link lost default = kill anything that mov (Score:1)
control link lost default = kill anything that moves
which goverment agency is going to grab this first (Score:1)
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Typically in the past Valve has ended up buying the devices from people and putting them in their lobby, They have full size TF2 Sentrys and a Portal Sentry but they do not actually fire things. All you have to do is search for them and you will get the pictures.
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"Valve has ended up buying"
license infringement that pays..!!!
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think about amount of goodwill they will generate without steam :)
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$5 says (Score:3)
There's a GPS devices underneath his car now and $10 says his next flight he's gonna receive a complementary ass exam.
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Lol. But he doesn't look or sound muslim. Are u not aware of the FBI boolean function: isTerrorist(name) { if(muslim_name && (science_project || fertiliser)) return true; return false;}
warning: unused variable 'name'
And? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this of special note because its slightly reminiscent of Portal? These guys put together an amazing tracking turret and stuffed it with paintballs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxBa5bQfTGc&feature=player_embedded#t=62s
http://www.paintballsentry.com/
Its tracking and rate of fire is pretty terrifying, in fact. I don't see why it couldn't be sleeved to look like a Portal turret too and be way more impressive.
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I wonder if you can replace the paintballs with ball bearings and use it as a form of home defense.
INTRUDER DETECTED. PLEASE ENTER ALARM CODE. LETHAL COUNTERMEASURES AUTHORIZED. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY.
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(Getting around the filter error, filter error, filter error. Getting around the filter error, ear-lye in the morrrrrrnin'.)
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I share you opinion that "making it look like Portal" does not add very much to what's already existing...
Even in real life this kind of turret is not new : http://www.gizmag.com/korea-dodamm-super-aegis-autonomos-robot-gun-turret/17198/
The only thing that make TFA interesting is that it was made "for cheap" using simple components and software. Not OSS though, wonder what OpenCV would do on this kind of project.
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I'm an idiot and I couldn't mock this up.
It's obviously not professional/military grade but I still found it impressive. Are you the type to mock amateur artwork because it's not Monet or Rembrandt?
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Sorry, that's an oft cited strawman. The critique exists in spite of the critiquer, you know. Sure, GP could have refrained from name-calling, but otherwise I can't but agree. It's a cool proof-of-concept, but it should be merely a first step -- something you throw together from junk in a week or so, just to figure out what you need to build the real thing. It's a step in the right direction, but completely unworthy of slashdot frontpage.
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I can't but agree. For crying out loud, one can build a much smoother tracking system using image processing on a Parallax Propeller CPU, and that thing has 2kbytes of RAM per core (cog). Using matlab to run something so simple that has an update rate in low single Hz is a letdown. I'd have expected it at least to run at webcam's framerate. It is lame and unworthy of slashdot's frontpage.
Needs a lot of work. (Score:5, Interesting)
Tracking is really slow. it should be tracking so fast that you dont get the jerky motion.
Add in predictive aiming and you have something that may get you a job for life working at a military contractor.
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Provided you can persuade the to wear pink shirts.
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I go to a Penn State branch campus. Considering that the main campus only gives each person $1000 and one semester to design and build their project, you cant say that this is not incredible! Yes it can certainly be better, but with the monetary and time restraints you can not argue with the final result!
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it can certainly be better, but with the monetary and time restraints you can not argue with the final result!
This is /. We can argue about anything...like the use of contractions or garamond is superior to times new roman.
Watch...I'll get numerous replies telling me I'm an idiot for even suggesting garamond is a usable font.
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Watch...I'll get numerous replies telling me I'm an idiot for even suggesting garamond is a usable font.
As requested, you're an idiot for even thinking that Garamond is "usable" in any way, shape, or form. You should really be using Times New Roman (or Helvetica, if you're concerned about the viewer's browser compatibility).
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You fool!
Everyone knows comic sans is the only legitimate font for mankind. I'm pretty sure the original bible used it.
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That's what you get if you slap together a proof of concept. Matlab's image processing can run much faster than demonstrated here, even on modest hardware. It's an unfinished hack, yes.
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I agree. Way back in 1988, one of my university cohorts developed image analysis and recognition software that would identify a target and paint a crosshair mid-torso. Of course in the age of the VAX 780, it was far from real-time processing. But given that even "slow" computers are over 1000 times as fast nowadays, there is absolutely no excuse for the apparent processing delays in this project. (It used to take an hour to do the analysis and paint the crosshair on a graphics terminal, so with 1000 ti
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The '88 software didn't require any cheating like using a bright pink shirt so it would stand out from the background, either. It would track anything human-shaped that crossed it's path, and was "smart" enough to reject other 4-limbed creatures like cats or dogs.
Rather than centering on "the pink blob", it used some interesting algorithms to build up a stick figure of the object, identify the torso stick, and aim for the middle of the torso stick.
They had a lot of fun on that project. Pretty much ev
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Python + OpenCV can detect a squirrel against a "natury" background in real time: Militarizing your backyard with Python [pyvideo.org].
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Put it on a drone, and now we have Python on a Plane.
Better example (Score:2)
Anyone else misread the title (Score:1)
and, skipping over the last word, was hoping that someone had made the Portal "gun" that shoots out working portals?
Nope. (Score:2, Insightful)
This looks as much like a portal turret as a stick figure looks like an actual human.
Project Sentry Gun (Score:1)
I've always enjoyed this one, which seems a bit less jerky than the portal turret (though the portal turret *looks* cool)
http://projectsentrygun.rudolphlabs.com/ [rudolphlabs.com]
Gnome Chompski Mark VII (Score:2)
are currently under development. They will fire less-lethal rounds at any dogs, cats, or children who dare to trespass onto my lawn.
http://left4dead.wikia.com/wiki/Gnome_Chompski [wikia.com]
Tracking a certain color of shirt..? (Score:2)
Needs a Nerf Vulcan and neural networks (Score:2)
Shoot down an RC helicopter [youtube.com]
Track and range a helicopter [youtube.com]
And even compensate for bullet drop [youtube.com]
Thanks for the "broken" link (Score:2)
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