/ Mark Frauenfelder / 1:41 pm Mon Jul 11, 2011

Building a robot to play iPhone games for you


[Video Link] This gentleman built an Arduino-controlled robot to play Coin Dozer in his stead.

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  3. Seems over built, couldn’t he have just used a lego wheel to tap on the screen? Also, doesn’t this seem like a tap screen stress test?

  5. I’ve been expecting someone to couple an X-Y plotter and webcam in order to programatically play iPad games.

  6. In for waste of hardware. This should have been an analog build.

    Is it just me, or does Arduino feel a little hipster/lamesauce? I mean, you can make some neat stuff using it, but why not just choose the right microcontroller for your project and develop specifically for that? And a USB interface? Please. Kids get off my lawn, etc.

    1. why not just choose the right microcontroller for your project and develop specifically for that?

      Because if you’re a beginner it’s a lot easier to ask around on Arduino forums to figure stuff out than it is to call up Atmel. Also, the complier works without spending days setting it up, and your laptop doesn’t exactly have a serial port anyway. Aurdino is great for its low barrier to entry.

      1. I dunno, I had a hell of a good time at 13 or 14 learning how to program PICs. I worry someone using this is missing out on all that fun.

        1. I dunno, I had a hell of a good time at 13 or 14 learning how to program PICs. I worry someone using this is missing out on all that fun.

          Arduino does not stop anyone from doing that. It *does* encourage people who otherwise would have been just a little too intimidated by the unknown to get started. After a project or two with the Arduino, they may think “gee, that wasn’t too bad, and I know the basics now, I could do this with a different microcontroller.”

      1. Like I have time to make it to the river! It’s taking me forever to post by whistling into the phone at 300 baud.

        1. So that’s why I saw your comment appear on the screen one character at a time!

    3. At Maker Faire it was a bit jarring how everything was so proudly “powered by an Arduino”. Almost every writeup had that phrase in it.

      What was much more intriguing to me, this year at least, was the few projects powered by some mysterious Android-powered prototyping board…

    4. > In for waste of hardware. This should have been an analog build.

      Why shouldn’t someone who already has an Arduino use it as a shortcut in their projects?

      I got an Arduino to build an analogue to PureData interface, but as I now have the Arduino lying around I find all sorts of uses for it in projects that, while they could be done with mechanical devices or 555s, are much quicker to knock out with the Arduino.

  7. it had to happen eventually: arduino derided as hipster. the truth of the matter is that not 10 percent of those namedropping arduino can do anything with it. but it’s rapidly doing for microcontrollers what mac did for pcs. things that used to be functionally impossible are now almost easy. and you can use a serial port if you so desire.

  8. That could have been done easier and funnier with one of those drinking bird toys that bob up and down.

  10. An Arduino *is* a microcontroller. It just comes with a little more support hardware by default. It’s like a PIC with a prototyping board. You’re not missing out on anything by using it, any more than you’re missing out on using a desktop computer you put together from pre-made boards as compared to soldering your own mobo/etc. the end results are similar, the path is a good bit different.

  11. considering it just has to tap the screen rhythmically in the same spot it could have been done WAY simpler. Was the microcontroller even remotely needed here?

    1. Probably not, but if you’re building a device to play a game for you, is any of it really remotely needed?

      Seems more like a proof of concept or someone just wanted to screw around with some free time and a spare Arduino, there are easier ways to get others to play games for you (see: children).

  12. Analog build?

    How about a motor and a gearbox?

    Or maybe a pendulum with a suitable length and a stylus to poke the screen?

    Or, maybe all of them in a row on 5 iPhones, starting with the game not being played, followed by the game being played by a pendulum, then one being played by a motor and gearbox, then by an analog circuit, then by a microcontroller, then by a guy sitting in a chair.

    It could be an artistic installation commenting on the value of how we spend our time.

    Oh, and next to the guy in the chair playing the game, we can have a computer with an empty chair and a browser open to a Boing Boing comment page. :)

  13. “Coin Dozer” seems to have really stretched the definition of “game”.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It looks like an updated version of a worry stone. Or rosary beads. Probably serves the same psychological function for the user.

  15. Someone has finally made a device that expresses how I pretty much feel about video games overall.

  16. I didn’t go see the details of this guy’s construction, but just the concept reinforced two things I know about the future:

    1) SkyNet is not only easy to build, but there are people who are eager to build it.

    2) When SkyNet becomes self-aware, it’s going to look around and say, “These humans… is this all they’ve done?” And this contempt will lay waste to our species.

  17. No, no, this is how it works: Hipsters used to like Arduino before everybody did.

    Of course *real* men use wirewrapping and would never be caught dead with anything that has a data sheet.

  19. This isn’t a robot… It’s just a servo motor doing what servo motors do… The Arduino is barely even being used.

    Now if there was some computer vision analyzing the placement of the coins, then the program calculated the positions of the blobs and where best to tap in order to place the next coin to achieve maximum coin over-flow, then you’d have something closer to a robot.

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