The innovative software powering the robot seeks funding on Indiegogo

May 23, 2014 09:37 GMT  ·  By

Robert Oschler is famous among artificial intelligence specialists and most likely less known to Windows Phone fans. However, this is about to change, as Mr. Oschler has just kicked off a funding project on Indiegogo, which seeks to turn Windows Phone into the main operating system for anything related to robotics software and entertainment.

Dubbed Nanabot, the project consists of specific software that will work in tandem with Windows Phone smartphone and an entertainment bot. Mr. Oschler, who is both an artificial intelligence and a smartphone application developer, wants to create “a fun, interactive, digital personality and an inexpensive, commonly available robot to support it.”

Bear in mind that the result of the project won’t have anything to do with the likes of R2D2 from Star Wars, but as Mr. Oschler puts it, “it will be an entertaining little personal robot at a level of interactivity I have not seen yet in a consumer robot. Of greatest importance of all is that it will be fun!”

Those who wish to pledge for this project should know that they will only receive the software that powers the entertainment bot and the robot, which can be purchased separately for a not so high amount of cash.

Developers will also receive access to the open source toolkit, so they will be able to create their own Windows Phone application for the robot powered by Nanabot.

The digital personality that powers Nanabot is called Yournana and has been inspired by Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant, Mr. Oschler says.

But let’s see what Nanabot will be able to do when powering an entertainment bot. Well first of all, owners of the robot will be able to play games with it. For the time being, it can only play SideWords for Windows Phone, but at least two other games will be available if the project is funded.

The software can also track your face, even though if it’s not perfect, at least it will offer the kind of entertainment one would want from such a device.

It will also be able to recognize popular books, DVDs and QR codes, but you need to be sure that the phone you use with the robot packs a front-facing camera.

The robot powered by Nanabot will be able to “explore your home making chatty comments, but in an interactive manner with you instead of just reciting them.”

It can also be used as a guard for your room and when unwanted visitors enter the room, Nanabot can ask them who they are and offer them a predefined message.

There will be plenty of stuff for developers who are given access to the open source toolkit of Nanabot. For example, they will be able to create apps tying the powerful sensors (accelerometer, camera, microphone, magnetometer, ambient light, proximity, Bluetooth, inclinator) integrated within some of the higher end Nokia Lumia smartphones to the robot platform.

Developers could also write apps that would involve the robot and NFC (Near Field Communication) tags that would be placed in certain areas at home and office.

The project also has a funnier stretch goal called KittyDar Cat Face Detector. Basically, the creator of Nanabot will adapt the open source project KittyDar code, which can detect a cat’s face in a photo if the cat is looking at the camera, to its own software.

Those who decide to invest in the project will receive the Nanabot software on September 8, along with the open source toolkit for Windows Phone developers.

Windows Phone fans and developers who wish to pledge for Nanabot can do it now on the project’s Indiegogo webpage.