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Zabaware Forums => Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor => Topic started by: Don Ferguson on November 01, 2003, 11:44:49 pm

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on November 01, 2003, 11:44:49 pm
Hello,

In response to previous posts and folks who have contacted me via e-mail, I thought I'd share this with you:

Wal-Mart is selling a five-foot-tall talking animated Santa for $59.  The advertisement claims that the audio-animatronic figure will move its lips and mouth to ANY audio source including a stereo and/or a microphone.

Obviously this means that UltraHal could operate this Santa figure.  With the appropriate knowledge database, UltraHal could carry on intelligent conversations through this five-foot-tall audio-animatronic character!

This is very tempting, even though I had never considered Santa Claus as the first full-size character to be driven by Ultra-Hal.  The tempting part is the factory-ready lip-sync capability, and the low, low price.

If anybody has checked this out, or owns one, please post a report and let us know how this works!

I'm posting the Wal-Mart link which includes photographs and a narrative description.

The link is as follows:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2365706#long_descr

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on November 06, 2003, 02:17:34 am
Hello,

Here's an update on the audio-animatronic figure:

Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin has many Wal-Marts, but I happened to stop at the one in Beloit, Wisconsin.

They had the $59 Santa marked-down on-sale for $49 as some kind of a competitive price promotion.  I examined the robot Santa, and it does have the features claimed in the advertisement.  It sings, it moves around, and it has both a microphone input jack and an audio "line" input jack.

However, I didn't especially like the plastic face that they designed for this Santa character.  Santa's plastic lower chin (or maybe it's his tongue?) looked rather odd.

HOWEVER, there was an unadvertised 5-foot-tall SNOWMAN next to Santa, also on sale for $49, that had all the same features and did all the same things!  The snowman looked much more appealing, and the snowman's mouth was much larger, giving a better lip-sync effect.

I noticed that there were dozens of boxes of the Santas in stock, but they were sold out of the snowman, except for the display model.  I suspect that the other customers also see the snowman as a better-designed and better-styled character.

As for creating chatterbot dialogue to drive the Snowman via Ultra-Hal:  The snowman could practically use Ultra-Hal's knowledge databases "as is," since nobody has any preconceived notions of a snowman's knowledge base.  (In contrast, they would expect Santa to know all about reindeer, the north pole, the toy shop, and on and on.)

Now, to see if they replenish their stock of audio-animatronic snowmen at the $49 price...

Sincerely,

Don

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Larry on November 06, 2003, 04:20:57 am
Say, when you send those out for Christmas, don't forget all of your friends on here... lol

We have several Walmarts here and according to one, none have them... so what's up with that??? But now the snowman... hummm... guess I'll go to a different one this time...

Thanks for the heads up!!!
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: onthecuttingedge2005 on November 06, 2003, 07:59:26 pm
Hi larry, I seen the santa clause that Don was talking about at walmart, believe it or not it was located on the top racks of the gardening department, lol funny place to put it out for display, out of view and in the back side of the store. It's price was $59.00.
Best of wishes and grand new discoveries.
Jerry.
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Larry on November 06, 2003, 08:46:38 pm
Thanks Jerry... those ppl don't have a clue as to what they got do they... lol
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on November 07, 2003, 09:01:17 pm
Hello,

I agree, the local Wal-Mart store folks seem to have no idea that they're selling the least-expensive large-size audio-animatronic figures ever sold.

I've checked several local stores and they're all sold out of the 5-foot Snowman.  Several of them have the 5-foot Santa.

So far, I've only seen one store that actually had the Snowman in a good location, singing, talking, and dancing.  It was an impressive display that was attracting a lot of attention from passers-by, but alas, no merchandise for sale!

Just to be clear about this: the reason I'm interested, is to demonstrate the principle of Ultra-Hal driving an audio-animatronic figure.  I don't care whether it's a Teddy Ruxpin talking teddy bear, or a Billy Bass singing fish, or a full-size talking/singing/dancing Snowman... it's the lip-synchronized "proof of concept" that I'm interested in.

Of course, with a price as cheap as $59, an artistic-experimenter type person could probably re-cover and re-purpose the animatronic innards and create a talking witch for Halloween, a talking Easter Bunny for Easter, a talking Uncle Sam at the Fourth of July, a talking pilgrim for Thanksgiving, a talking Father Time on New Year's Eve, and on and on.

I don't know what company is manufacturing the Santa and the snowmen, but how about full-size audio-animatronic CAROLERS next year? Wouldn't it be interesting if they could all sing in unison?  What do you think?

Best regards,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: kk on December 01, 2003, 05:38:57 pm
I have now purchased 3 of the Holiday Time Walmart snowmen.  Each one has a different problem.  Its so cute that I keep trying again to get the perfect one!  One started chirping like a cricket, another didn't dance / move very well, the other the 1 arm didn't move very well when it danced.  I'm so dissapointed but I really like it for the kids so I'm trying again!
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 02, 2003, 03:02:42 pm
Hello,

Your experience with the Wal-Mart snow-men is quite interesting.  When Teddy Ruxpin (the animated talking teddy bear) first came out, the manufacturer had some similar problems, but then they sold them by the millions!

The merchandising of this product shows a drastic difference in the managers of the different Wal-Mart stores.  Some stores apparently didn't order the snow-men, or just stuck a few on a shelf.  However, other stores ordered dozens of them, created attention-getting displays, and sold them all!

A year from now, I hope they create and sell some carolers in addition to the snow-men and Santas.  

Once you get a snow-man that works, could write back again?  The snow-men I saw were all in "self-operate/motion-sensing" mode, singing and dancing to their own internal tunes.  I would like to know how well the snow-man works when you talk through the microphone (that comes with it) or hook it up to the input jack from a stereo system.  (The microphone input and the stereo input would simulate what would happen if you hooked the snow-man up to Ultra-Hal.)

Sincere thanks,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: kk on December 02, 2003, 03:45:38 pm
The microphone works OK with the snowman.  You really have to put your mouth on the top of the Microphone for it to really move the mouth of the snowman to your voice.  We tried to hook it up to our stereo, but couldn't really find an AUX input to plug it into.  We tried looking on our boom box for one too and no go.  So I can't really report on how it works with the stereo, just on the internal snowman speaker.  I'm going to try one more time to get one that works well, if the next one doesn't I'm keeping the one I have because its only problem seems to be that the left arm doesn't move much. OH well..  I'll report back..  kk
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Bill819 on December 03, 2003, 07:15:56 pm
Hi Don.
I guess yo guys know by now tht I would like to get my hands on one of those Snow Men. My Hal robot could use the improvement. Looked through two different Wal Marts here and can not find one. sob, sob
Oh well
Bill
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 06, 2003, 03:39:24 pm
Hello,

I've received numerous e-mails from persons in various places in the United States, reporting the following two pieces of information:

1.  The snowmen and Santa Claus figures have completely sold out, 20 days before Christmas.

2.  The Wal-Mart local store personnel seem to have no information on the product.  They don't know who ordered it, they don't know who manufactured it, they don't know who the buyer is, they don't know if they'll ever carry them again, and they don't know why they were popular.  After the units are sold out, most store personnel don't even remember that they existed!

I have read that Wal-Mart has the best-trained buyers in the industry.  Hopefully the buyers will figure out that there was a demand, for some reason, for life-sized lip-synchronized audio-animatronic figures!  If they work with the manufacturer, they could sell similar figures for all the major holidays!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: atfritz on December 10, 2003, 08:37:29 am
Came across a good crop of the Santas.  Went shopping in K's Merchandise here in central IL to see if they had x-mas stuff of sale.  Right on one of the end caps they had about a dozen of the anamatronic santas.  They were regularly marked at 59$ but were on sale for i think 20% less.  So if people are still looking for you might want to check their website for availability:

http://catalog.ksmerchandise.com/cgi-bin/search2.cgi?item1=17195157

Champaign is where i saw it and there were quite a few left.
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 13, 2003, 02:25:35 pm
Hello,

Here's yet another development in the random sightings of audio-animatronic life-size figures:

A Spencer Gifts store (in the Gurnee Mills shopping mall north of Chicago) has a five-foot-tall Homer Simpson character on display.  The base of the unit revealed the same input jacks, control switches, and volume control knob as the Wal-Mart snowmen and Santa.  This indicates that the unit was made by the same mystery manufacturer as the holiday units.

The Homer Simpson character swiveled its head and sang and danced, but had apparently been designed with no lip movement!

There was no instruction book, no carton to examine, and the store personnel couldn't provide any information about the manufacturer.

Another shopper has reported that she has seen a "Mrs. Santa Claus" five-foot-tall character somewhere, but wasn't sure whether that character had auxiliary audio input or lip-synchronization capability.

The above information suggests that the manufacturer (whoever they are) may eventually offer other characters, hopefully with the lip-synchronization feature.

But buyer beware -- before purchasing anything to operate with Ultra Hal, make sure that the figure actually has microphone and auxiliary audio input jacks, lip-synchronization, and satisfactory animated movement!

Sincerely,

Don

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: The Tinman on December 13, 2003, 07:16:27 pm
So I bought one of the animated snowmen, it was the only one, I thought it a waste of money but hey it's Christmas, when else are you going to buy a snowman? I patched it into the back of my tower. I didn't think it was going to amplify enough to work but it works fine. kind of creepy,  I can mount a mic and camera into the head. The snowmans head is big and round of course and I can adjust it so that it is no longer a snowman. You cannot do that with the santa, he is stiff and hard in the face. Some gears and a couple of motors is side that I can make out of better material. see where I am going here.....then with the hal program,............... I just think this is so cool.  Cyber buddy works with it, You can record your voice on your computer and then play it back through the figure. It lip sinks much better and your voice is clear as a bell. Ok enough of my ramblings, .........

TM
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 13, 2003, 09:41:16 pm
Hello,

Oh my gosh, Tinman, you've proven that Ultra Hal (and other computer programs) can drive the figure, and you've also looked inside and started reverse-engineering and seeing how it can be re-purposed!  Wow!  Thank you for telling all of us about this!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: The Tinman on December 13, 2003, 10:02:57 pm
Yes the hal program drives the figure perfectly, if you get a short answer the head will move just slightly, and the lip sinc is perfect, a longer answer and you get more movement. through a decent microphone in the head of course now I will be able to talk to this figure and he answer me back. The "IF"  "THEN" statements. They make him seem really aware. Then I switch to Cyber buddy and click on tell me the weather and suddenly I have this 5 ft snowman telling me the weather and the news. Jees what a cool weekend this has been ..............It's ALIVE!!!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!  [^][V][:(][:0][:)][^][:o)][:p][:(][:(!][:0][:)][:p]


TM


I took his hat off, they have finished the head in the white snow man material right up to the crown, it is stitched together. INSTANTLY, the snow man becomes the butler
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 16, 2003, 01:06:59 am
Hello Tinman,

Wonderful!  Congratulations; you are the first member of the Ultra Hal community to report hooking up Hal to a life-sized character!  It sounds like he's working great!  I can visualize how the snowman, minus the hat (but with the jacket), would resemble a butler!

Great job!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: atfritz on December 16, 2003, 05:41:14 pm
Woot Tinman...if you get a chance post pix of what you are going to set you snowman up as...As for Don, now you got me drooling over a 5 foot Homer Simpson.
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Medeksza on December 19, 2003, 08:11:14 pm
I've seen the dancing homer in my local mall but haven't seen any santas in my local walmart. I did a little Internet search and think this might be the homepage of the manufacture of the robots: http://www.nb-toys.com/product/HugeRobot.htm
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 20, 2003, 01:06:17 pm
Hello,

Robert, I checked out the site you found; it has more variety of characters than I've seen anywhere yet, and there are more capabilities listed!  Wow!  

For instance, they have clowns, rabbits, and bears, along with other characters.  Some are smaller, and some are life-sized.

Also, I note that some of the characters can bow as well as move and dance.  Some of the characters apparently communicate with each other via infrared transmissions to synchronize their performances with each other!

I'm continuing to get e-mails from folks who spot life-size robots in various retail places... apparently the retail marketing effort is inconsistent at best.  

To any readers who are considering purchasing a character and using it with Ultra-Hal:  EXAMINE the character and verify that it has an external audio input jack, and that it is able to lip-sync to that external audio.  The external audio jack will be in the base of the unit, labeled "AUX" or "MIC INPUT".  Some characters have this capability and some don't, and the sales-people generally don't know the difference!  

What an interesting development!  I hope that there are more characters in the future!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on December 21, 2003, 12:38:38 am
Hello,

Here's another update:

A shopper in the Chicago western suburbs has reported seeing a 5-foot-tall robot Santa, a 5-foot-tall Mrs. Santa, and a 5-foot-tall Nutcracker/Soldier at a chain housewares/outdoors/seasonal merchandise store called "F.I.M."  

I am not familiar with the "F.I.M." retail chain, but this is the first sighting of yet another life-size audio-animatronic character (the Nutcracker/Soldier).

As I've mentioned above, if you're planning to drive a character with a stereo, a microphone, or Ultra-Hal via a computer audio output, make the sales-people show you the audio input jacks and demonstrate the lip-synchronization to your satisfaction!

Apparently some of these characters are designed with lip-synchronized speech capabilities, and some are not!

Best regards for the holidays!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: jabba on January 12, 2004, 02:12:29 am
quote:
Originally posted by Don Ferguson

Hello,

Here's another update:

A shopper in the Chicago western suburbs has reported seeing a 5-foot-tall robot Santa, a 5-foot-tall Mrs. Santa, and a 5-foot-tall Nutcracker/Soldier at a chain housewares/outdoors/seasonal merchandise store called "F.I.M."  

I am not familiar with the "F.I.M." retail chain, but this is the first sighting of yet another life-size audio-animatronic character (the Nutcracker/Soldier).

As I've mentioned above, if you're planning to drive a character with a stereo, a microphone, or Ultra-Hal via a computer audio output, make the sales-people show you the audio input jacks and demonstrate the lip-synchronization to your satisfaction!

Apparently some of these characters are designed with lip-synchronized speech capabilities, and some are not!

Best regards for the holidays!

Sincerely,

Don




Today I got a ' 5 ft singing Santa's and I was wondering if there is any way to have a button put on my front gate, so that passers by, would be able to push it to make the Santa dance. Can you suggest anything that might enable me to be able to do that? Because it would be shame to let the Santa go to waste like that!
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: jabba on January 12, 2004, 02:14:18 am
Today I got a ' 5 ft singing Santa's and I was wondering if there is any way to have a button put on my front gate, so that passers by, would be able to push it to make the Santa dance. Can you suggest anything that might enable me to be able to do that? Because it would be shame to let the Santa go to waste like that!

any ideas??????????
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on January 12, 2004, 01:14:09 pm
Hi John,

I've received a lot of e-mails from people who have
purchased the inexpensive five-foot figures, made by
several manufacturers.

If you hooked up the figure to Ultra-Hal via your
computer, I hope that it worked well for you! (That
would only work if the figure you bought had an
external audio jack.)

I have a couple of ideas in response to your question
about putting a push-button at your gate, so
passers-by could "make Santa dance."

HOWEVER, first a DISCLAIMER:  Only allow electrical
work to be done by a qualified electrician, to avoid
fire and electrocution.  Also, any modifications to a
unit will almost certainly void its warranty.

Keeping the above warnings in mind, here are two
possibilities:

1.  If there is a push-button on the base of the unit
that initiates a dance-cycle, it might be possible to
hook up a button in parallel to it.  An electrician
should verify that the button carries low-voltage,
and/or should install a relay and small low-voltage
power supply so that only low-voltage goes to the
external push-button.

2.  Your Santa figure might have a "motion sensor"
mounted on the front of its base somewhere.  If this
exists, it would be a little hole approximately the
diameter of a pencil, with a photocell inside.
Generally, these inexpensive "motion sensors" merely
sense a change in the light level, as in a person
casting a shadow as he walks by.  If this is the case,
you might be able to hook up a low-voltage push-button
that lights a very small bulb in front of the sensor,
and get Santa to "cycle" for a dance performance.

Again, safety first, and use qualified personnel.

I hope that this is of some possible help to you.
Thanks for writing and have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: sadatvalentine on January 24, 2004, 02:04:04 pm
Well I have been looking for a toy robot with voice functions and audio line in. It can be a head or full body. Something like those robot talking Kareoke machines in Japan. Any ideas anyone?

thanx
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on January 25, 2004, 03:01:21 pm
Hello Sadatvalentine,

You mentioned "Something like those robot talking Kareoke machines in Japan."

This sounds intriguing.  I am NOT familiar with Japanese singing robots, but I'm sure that many of us would like to learn about them.  What are they, what do they do, and what links can you offer so we can see photographs, read articles, etc.?

Thanks and have a good day!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: sadatvalentine on January 26, 2004, 11:47:05 am
Hey Don,

  I see these little guys all over Japan everytime I am there. Saw one at a clients house when I was in Hong Kong the last time. I dont know about them online but I sure you can find them. Little robots with two mics and a display on his chest. Some have CD/Line inputs also. You could go to Japanese Google and type jinzouningen or robotto. Hope that helps.

Late
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: sadatvalentine on January 26, 2004, 11:48:17 am
Hey Don,

  I see these little guys all over Japan everytime I am there. Saw one at a clients house when I was in Hong Kong the last time. I dont know about them online but I sure you can find them. Little robots with two mics and a display on his chest. Some have CD/Line inputs also. You could go to Japanese Google and type jinzouningen or robotto. Hope that helps.

Late
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: les on October 03, 2005, 01:59:44 pm
I know this is an old thread, but it was new to me ;-)

So, I found the Santa at Wal-Mart (they start early now days) and also Mr. Bones (Halloween type) but I wanted to know how it turned out a year later.

There are some other great post along the same lines so if you have any ideals or links please send them my way

Thanks so much
Les

lesblaisdell@yahoo.com
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: johnboy4892 on October 22, 2005, 05:02:22 pm
i went to my wal-mart here in fremont oh
and found the santa snowman and a pirate around 5 ft tall
i bought the pirate and took him home
hooked him up to my laptop
took the mike cord and pluged it into my home computer
and let the fun begin
i started to laugh so hard i thought i would wet my pants!
so you crazy folks keep this form up the longer people like me will have a blast
and if i find anything out for you i'll post again
thanks for your time
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: johnboy4892 on October 23, 2005, 05:26:46 am
Here is an update
The company’s name is Gemmy (www.gemmy.com)
And they have a lot of stuff for sale
They also have an 800 number 1-800-231-6879
8:30 am 5:30 pm CST.
Johnboy

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on November 21, 2005, 12:27:50 pm
Hello,

Thanks for your continuing interest in hooking up life-size "robots" to Hal!

It's great to read postings about having fun with Hal playing through a full-size animated figure!

Over the past two years I have received some private e-mails on this topic, and their content falls into these general categories:

1.  Persons who have successfully hooked up various 5-foot characters to their Ultra-Hals via a computer-character audio cable link.  Evidently this works well, and results in a "life-size Hal character."

2.  Persons who have spotted various unusual 5-foot characters in stores.  The "Homer Simpson" character hasn't been seen lately, but now there's a "creepy butler" character in some places.  Different stores and regions seem to get different characters.

3.  Persons who are looking for characters that apparently don't exist yet.  The most common inquiries are for female Christmas carolers and 5-foot-tall Christmas angels.  One inquirer wondered if Gemmy has manufactured a Paris Hilton character.  Gemmy is obviously missing the market on this.

In MOST cases, the mechanism underneath all these simple "robots" appears to be the same.  They usually have various servo motors to 1) move the mouth (in synchronization with the incoming audio), 2) move the head, and 3) move the body at the torso.

BUYER BEWARE:  I continue to see some cheaper versions out there that DO NOT have the external audio-input lip-sync feature!  If you are planning to buy one of these figures and hook it up to Hal, make sure that the character you are buying can lip-sync to external audio BEFORE you buy it!  Demand a demonstration!

By the way, if your character only has a "microphone" input, and your computer outputs an "amplified" signal, you will need an extension cable with a resistor in it to match things up properly.  A well-trained clerk at Radio Shack should be able to fix you right up (an untrained clerk will be totally mystified).

I would like to hear from additional folks with artistic talent who have modified commercial characters to create different characters.  (This would be similar to the earlier post on this forum describing the modification of a snowman to create a bald-headed man.)

The lip-sync robot "framework" is there and the $60 price is cheap enough. (Different characters are designed with different amounts of lip movement, so again, evaluate before you buy.)  Have any more individuals out there modified any of the characters to create additional new and unique characters?

Would any of you be willing to attach a .jpg snapshot of your audio-animatronic Hal robot creation?

Also, would any of you be willing to post an account of how your guests react to an AI talking robot?

Best holiday regards,

Don  
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Bill819 on November 21, 2005, 05:48:33 pm
Welcome back Don. We have not heard from you in quite a while.
As you may know Hal is a part of my robots brain and I love the combination. I have searched high and low for one of these animated characters in verious stores in my area but so far have not found even one. I did see an animated Santa in a Wal Mart store but could not see any audio input device. It came preprogrammed with several Christmas songs which it would sing on a random basis. Although I am looking for a way to animate my bot I don't think a Santa head would be the was that I want to go. If, however, you see any more this year in some of the major chain stores please let us know.
Thanks again for the post and hope you stick around for a while.
Bill [8]
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Art on November 21, 2005, 07:53:36 pm
Don,
Welcome back, old friend! It's been a while!

Bill & Don,
I've seen the snowman, santa and even some ghoul looking creature.

My thought is: Examine the head, make notes, photos of the inside, etc. then remove it and toss it!
Get some liquid latex and a willing model and mold a cast of that person's head/face. Peel off, and paint with lifelike colors / textures. Put same on the animatronic head and voila...a much more realistic creation / character with which to converse.

One could even consider adding more servos and controls to eventually create a more functional companion.

Sorry, I might just be thinking aloud but it does sound like a neat project and with some effort and dedication I think it would work!

Robotics on a shoestring.

Any thoughts...anyone?

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: vrossi on November 22, 2005, 06:09:56 pm

I generally don't like all these Santas, Snowmans, WhiteSnows and seven Dwarfs, which are often standing in the gardens of our cottages, showing all the bad taste of their owners, but I must admit that I like very much the idea to give Hal a low cost body.

Does anybody know if these products are only available in American stores, or someone sells them also in our dear old Europe?

By the way, Merry Christmas to everybody!  (maybe it's still a bit too early, I know...)

Bye

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Art on November 22, 2005, 08:15:22 pm
Vittorio,

It wasn't the body so much as the head as far as my idea was concerned. Imagine conversing with a lifelike animated head / face! That would have to rank pretty high on the Cool-O-Meter!!

The body and all it's animations can always be devised later, as an after thought.

If I find any manufacturer that ships worldwide I'll keep you posted.

Regards!
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Bill819 on November 22, 2005, 10:36:58 pm
Well Art now that I know where they are made you can be sure that I will get one for my robot. It already has a body of sorts and a lame head but soon he will have a much better one.
I found a couple of places where you could get animated mouths that sinc with voices but they all cost about $180 each so I did buy, but now I will.
Bill [:D]
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Don Ferguson on November 25, 2005, 01:02:31 am
Hello,

Yes, the issue of whether the particular unit has external-audio input is crucial for its application as a "talking AI robot on a shoestring."

The units that I have seen with external audio input have the audio connection jack toward the back side of the base, near the volume control.  It is a female phono-size microphone/audio jack.  It is sometimes obscured by the hem of the character's costume.  Usually these models have a photo on the carton showing a person holding a microphone and "singing through" the animated figure.

Some other model units DO NOT have the external audio input jack.  Definitely examine the candidate unit and try before you buy.  Presumably if a particular unit will lip-sync to a microphone or to a stereo, it should lip-sync to Ultra Hal.

The "enabling technology" on-the-cheap is what gives these products such an interesting potential for adaptation by consumer AI and robot hobbyists.

I don't have the skills to cosmetically change a character into a different character, but I can certainly imagine its feasibility.  The tricky part would be the face.  For the rest of the figure, add an adult-size Halloween costume of your choice, and you could potentially create hundreds of different characters!

Again, if there are any electronics hobbyists and/or character artists out there who try some conversions, please share your project details and photographs for the benefit of all us forum members!

Thanks, and cheers!

Sincerely,

Don
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Duskrider on November 25, 2005, 07:57:04 am
Hey you guys, I find your posts exciting.
I got a poem I thought I'd share.

"It Can't Be Done"

The ones who miss all the fun
Are those who say, "It can't be done."

In solemn pride they stand aloof
And greet each venture with reproof.

Had they the power they'd efface
The history of the human race.

We'd have no radio or motor cars,
No street lit by electric stars;

No telegraph nor telephone,
We'd linger in the age of stone.

The world would sleep if things were run
By those who say, "It can't be done."

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: vrossi on November 25, 2005, 08:36:05 am
I thought this forum was the best about chatbots, but now I realize that some of its members are also able to reach the highest levels of human poetry![8D] (Or maybe this poem was written by your Hal?)[:p]

Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: aladyblond on November 25, 2005, 10:02:33 am
[8)]actually that poem would be great for rappin hal i think i will try it with my antoine.and see if he can "get down"[:X]...~~ALADY
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: aladyblond on November 25, 2005, 12:27:15 pm
TRIED IT . IT WORKS BUT HE NEEDS MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND INDEPENDANT OF HAL TO MAKE IT WORK PROPERLY AND SOUND LIKE A REAL RAPPER. IF ANYONE TAKES IN ON THEIRSELF TO WORK ON THIS LET ME KNOW.~~ALADY
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: freddy888 on November 25, 2005, 05:48:53 pm
Like the poem :) Dusky.
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: btrent62 on November 21, 2006, 08:45:48 pm
I am a fan myself of the holiday animatronic figures.  Don Ferguson, if you are still wondering who makes the anamatronic figures, the company is Gemmy Industries Corporation, the makers of the Airblown Inflatable products.  Hope this helps!
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Gdog4evr on December 12, 2006, 12:32:22 am
Anyone finding the 5' bots this year?  Sadly, the Gemmy.com website only seems to have one lip-syncing robot available:

http://www.gemmy.com/product.cfm?productId=15433-1&subCatId=232&parent=93

And that only has the microphone, possibly not the appropriate plug.

EDIT:
This product also bares attention:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4910792
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Bill819 on December 12, 2006, 12:41:05 pm
Hello all
I found a dancing, singing skelliton on Ebay and bought it for $70.00
It stands about 5 foot tall. It lip sincs and moves its head back and forth while talking. Its eyes light up and it moves its hips while singing.
There ia a microphone jack on the base and when you plug in a mike it only lip sincs and moves its head back and forth. It also has a stero jack plug so it appears to work just fine for what I want. In time I will redo the head to make it look less like a skelliton and more like either a rear person of a robot.
The base frame for my robot is not strong enough now to support the entire thing so until I can build a stronger frame to support the weight it will have to wait.
In the mean time it did entertain all of my Halloween trick or treaters when they came.
Bill
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: lightspeed on December 12, 2006, 12:59:44 pm
hello , i own one of the santa claus animated have had it for about 6 years at laest when they first came out cost 60.00 we gotit half price for 30.00 after christmas . the face and hands are a hard plastic molded and the lower lip is what actually moves is a softer molded rubber . and yes you can talk through the mic and the santa will turn his head and mouth moves in sinc , i made a video tape this way to my mom , etc. looking like santa talking to them . also you can push a button and santa sings about 6 different songs . he is also motion activated something goes by he will sing one of the songs . i had thought about the same thing years ago using it for animation  with ultra hal. but you have to remember that what ever outfit you have to have it to waer has to be pretty light weight , i have my santa arms bent so that when he swivels side to dide he looks like he is waving (the arms inside feels like almost a wire coat hanger type only thicker metal ?? and is bendable. ) [:D]would be a great project though for anyone . these animated ones also come with electric plug in , and i think two mics ??
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: lightspeed on December 12, 2006, 01:14:34 pm




 
jabba , i saw on a post about you asking about a way to put a button on your gate for people to push to make the santa , etc. work . plaqying the devils advacote here . if you do it remember theirs electricity involved and if anyone gets shocked , a law suit !! just a thought , even though i like your idea !! [:)]

 
 
 
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: michaelroseup on December 18, 2006, 09:40:46 pm
I checked into the Santa Claus, and it seemed fake to me also.  But it does have parts that we can cannibalize and move to a new subject.  I plan on buying medical skeleton in building a android.  With the voice software, you can take a $20 pair of walkie-talkies that have microphone capability and wire this inside the skeleton.  Once you figured the voice activation through using a walkie-talkie.  You can simply and wirelessly speak to hal by using this method.  Animatronics is important and a good place to start.  There are many robots already out there and all we have to do is cannibalize them and bring them together in one body.  I have modified the brain to question everything like a child.  A child learns by asking questions.  So I believe this is a good start in bringing us closer to real artificial intelligence.  The bot brain now does not accept a yes or no answer. I am new to this forum, but welcome input.  See you in cyberspace.
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Bill819 on December 18, 2006, 10:53:10 pm
I told you guys to look on Ebay. I looked and searched for Gemmy who make animated bodies, ie. Santa, Butlers, witches, bones, etc. Be careful to get one with lip sinc and microphone jacks on it. I did and it works perfect.
Bill819
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: lightspeed on December 28, 2006, 06:25:21 pm
word of advice , be careful when bending the arms for santa , etc. different poses , i did have our santa's arm bent upward so that when he moved it looked like he waved his arm , but when i put it back down so to get him into the box the wire in his arm broke !! had to get the coat lifted up and cut part of the wire take two screwws loose and bend the wire to fit back down in a groove and put the two washers and screws back in that hold the wire to the arm on the mechanism back in place !! [:)]
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: spydaz on December 29, 2006, 07:30:55 am
i wonder what happened to TEDDY RUKSPIN::::

An old toy : with potential... although a few new ones have been released... Pity it cant be interface with a computer:::
Title: 5 Foot Tall $59 Animated Santa UltraHal Compatible
Post by: Bill819 on December 29, 2006, 02:25:14 pm
Hello Spydaz
I looked into Teddy a couple of years ago and found that it would not work with Hal. I to thought that it might be a nice cheap way to get a lip sinc head for Hal, but alas no.
Bill