Machine balances pencil on its tip

BalancerPicture.jpg

[Video Link]

Finally!

In our demonstration, we address the challenging problem of balancing an arbitrary standard pencil, based solely on visual information. A stereo pair of silicon retinas reports vision events caused by the moving pencil, which is standing on its tip on an actuated table. Then our processing algorithm extracts the pencil position and angle without ever using a "full scene" visual representation, but simply by processing only the spikes relevant to the pencil's motion.

Our system uses neurally inspired hardware and a neurally inspired form of communication to achieve a difficult goal. Thus, it is truly a Neural Information Processing System.

Pencil Balancer (Via Make)