Well the BotsIQ competition came and went in a blazing two days. While that wrapped up most of the filming for the documentary (with a few post-competition interviews left) there’s still a long road ahead in first sorting all the footage, and then editing it all. As I go through stuff I’ll be posting more clips.

In the meantime here’s a cool shot Sir Cam-a-bot (more info coming soon) caught inside the arena. Witch Doctor was a beast.

(I post lots of updates on the Facebook Page, which trickles down to Twitter. Keep updated there)

Robot Building Time – Time Lapse Montage from Joey Daoud on Vimeo.

For the past few weeks I’ve been filming time lapse shots of teams building their robots. I set the camera to take one picture every second and when you play it back you get a lot of time condensed. It’s cool to watch stuff built really quickly.

This could very well be a part 1 of 2 as there will only be much more robot building in the week leading up to competition.

Twitter celebrated its 4th birthday this past Sunday (March 21). Look at the first Tweet here.

Summer of 2008 I was able to interview Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter. I’m sure today he wouldn’t have time to sit down with some college kids in the Twitter HQ, so I was lucky I got him when I did (the interview was actually pushed back because he had to go on Fox to talk about Obama announcing Biden as his running mate on Twitter).

I think what he says is really interesting, not just about Twitter but how we communicate as a society.

Check it out and please share and rate it if you like it:

Top 10 Battlebot Moments | Robotworld

I wish HD existed back then.

Check out this video on saving NASA’s Constellation program and Ares rocket (the program that was going to replace the Space Shuttle and take us back to the moon, and then Mars). In his proposed budget Obama wants to raise NASA funding by about 2%, but cut the Constellation program (and basically manned space flight), leaving that area open for private companies to take over.

This has been a pretty low note compared to Obama’s announcement to push for science and engineering education. Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg thinks it’s the right thing to do, arguing that “the only technology for which the manned space flight program is well suited is the technology of keeping people alive in space. And the only demand for that technology is in the manned space flight program itself.” And I’m sure robots everywhere are cheering when he says for the cost of one manned mission to Mars you could send 100 robots.

Of course if we ever want to have a future that doesn’t permanently restrict humans to remaining on Earth (which I hope is not the case) then we’ll need all that technology and knowledge that comes out of manned space travel.

I think a far more intangible benefit of manned space travel is marketing. Marketing for interest in science. Marketing for exploration. Marketing to future generations and inspiring people to explore science and technology and continue the journey into the final frontier.

There’s an inspiring article written by Calvin Turzillo (the guy who made the video above) marking the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon. You should definitely read it.

With the Space Shuttle retirement just over a year away, now is the time to dream big, take chances, and really let our imaginations guide us. Now is the time that we as a generation need a vision. We need a vision like that of generations past, to once again return to the moon. However, we cannot stop there. We must continuing pushing that frontier, pushing forward, onward to new worlds. We must explore and learn, create and innovate, conquer tough challenges, and once again see our world as one whole instead of many pieces.

I thought of a solution that would definitely motivate private companies to invest in manned flights to Mars. Just tell them there’s oil on it.

Set it to full screen. This reminds me a lot of Power of 10. It’ll also remind you of every question you ever had of life, the universe, and everything.

via A Fabulous Journey Through The Known Universe.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Robotic chair fine art.

Bots High Teaser Trailer from Joey Daoud on Vimeo.

It’s probably not the best to call this a trailer, since I really have no idea how the film will shape up (though I’m 90% sure Flamin’ Fluffy will be in it), but this played in the trailer section of the Borscht Film Festival, so I’m calling it a trailer.

It’s more of a good highlight reel of all the action at Mayhem in Miami. It even includes foreshadowing!

YouTube and blip.tv links.