Topics

1

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Walmart animatronics

« on: December 02, 2004, 10:44:41 pm »

There were a series of posts last year (or very early this year) discussing a 5 ft high Santa & Snowman that were on sale at Walmart.  These consisted of a metal frame with either a cloth Santa or snowman suit on it.  It was jointed at the hip so that the hips could move left and right a couple of inches.  It had a rigid plastic face with a movable mouth, and it could sing songs and lipsync to them while moving it's hips ("dancing").

The conversation was around hooking up UltraHal to these, and driving the mouth to match Hal's speaking.

The point is that they are back at Walmart (at least up here in Wisconsin).  $50 for the Santa and Snowman, and this year they have a bear and a Grinch (ala Dr. Suess).

I never saw a post where someone claimed to have actually gotten Hal hooked up, but I was fairly tempted to buy one just to see what was inside.  Luckily sanity grabbed me before I did so, but for the rest of you less sane, you might want to keep a look out for them.

Zen

[Download Attachment:]

2

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / My People Putty Char (revamp)

« on: November 17, 2004, 09:54:12 pm »

I'm having a ball with People Putty.  I've got a couple more chars that I really like.  However, I can't fit them in the 10M of space I have from my web provider unless I delete the FullBody textures.

So ZAP!

Here is the current list of characters available on the website.

http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Beth.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Carol.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Lenore.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/LotR.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Marion.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Santa.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Sarah.zip
http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/Tigress.zip

Each zip has a jpg as well. See the attachment for pictures of each of the characters.

If you need the FullBody textures, and have an email space that can take 4M files, send me an email to let me know you want it and I'll email it to you.

Download Attachment: Portraits.jpg
140.77 KB

3

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Haptek chars & textures

« on: November 06, 2004, 03:14:52 pm »

Just a note that I posted links to three Haptek chars & some textures for the FullBody char in the "Brain" forum; link is:

http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1602

(scroll down a bit to find them)

4

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / A couple skins

« on: November 06, 2004, 01:41:56 pm »

Just for fun, I've created a couple of minimalistic skins for UltraHal.  Just a border, some buttons, and a big window for the haptek characters.  Feel free to try them if you'd like.

http://home.wi.rr.com/wblair9/ZenHalSkins.zip

5

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / My People Putty Characters

« on: November 05, 2004, 05:47:52 pm »

I purchased Haptek's People Putty, and quickly generated a number of talking heads (of the female persuasion).  I happen to be a good texture creator, and since the only creative thing you can do (beyond morphing the face) in People Putty is apply a texture, the characters turned out well. (I'll start a different thread later on the limitations of People Putty and it's comparison to the Mr. Potato Head toy).

I haven't seen any people posting Haptek characters for download in these forums.  As far as I can tell, the license allows distribution of the .htr files.  Does anyone know of a reason why the characters couldn't be posted?

On a related note, I am in the process of trying to re-establish the ftp connection to my Web providers file storage area so that I can make these available.  Assuming I cannot do so quickly, is there someone who would have an interest in hosting them so that forum readers could get access?

6

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / A book reading question for Hal experts

« on: November 05, 2004, 05:38:15 pm »

I tried UltraHal Assistant's text reading function (HalPad).  I had assumed that Hal's lips would move with the text; it seemed like an obvious addition to the program, and thought it would be cute to have a visible book reader.  I was surprised to find out that they don't.  I haven't seen any references to this in the forum; has it ever been discussed?  Has anyone tried to get Hal to read a book (text file) and have the lips move?

Zenman