Engineer Zero

I was watching a History Channel documentary on The Brain just now. Toward the end it mentioned a new technology being developed, which enables a human to spot objects in photographs many times faster than normal. It’s being developed by DARPA, so the announcer said, “But the applications could go far beyond defense and intelligence.”

Yeah, you know, like spotting trends in the stock market. Yep, that was it. Spotting trends in the stock market. Isn’t that something to look forward to? Wall Street will now be able to engage in zero sum game speculation go broke and ask for bailouts a thousand times faster than ever before.

That’s something we need.

For some reason, or rather the reason of not thinking about it, I chose the cloudy-transparency option for the windows. So this morning I was looking at it and realized that I should have had just regular old transparent blue. So I opened up the file, opened up the component, and changed the color of the window. Automatically, all the windows are changed. Horay.

By the way, is it just me, or has Family Guy become unwatchable?

Okay, the simple solution to the window-cut problem was to make a wall panel component with the window pre-cut into it. I made the window transparent, by the way. Then I deleted the old walls and replaced them with instances of the panel-window component.

Then to make it interesting, I inserted a background from one of the Mars rover missions.

I know that a restaurant on Mars seems like something for the twenty-second century, if ever, but if we could ever develop some sort of fusion propulsion, this scene could be for real within five years. How about reservations for 9AM breakfast, October 19, 2015?

I realize Chez Mars is kind of generic for the restaurant name, but I downloaded the picture from a Yahoo search and it didn’t give me any information as to where the scene is from. I suppose I could look it up, but we have a few years yet. Another Sunday, then.

As I wallow through Google Sketchup 7 for Dummies, I have tried to apply my knowledge. Here is an attempt to emulate the drawing of a restarant in the book, by using components. I learned that I didn’t know how to make automatic cuts for windows, hence I had to change the window component from transparent to sky(ish) blue. I also discovered I didn’t know how to add the flower vase to the table-chair component without creating a new table-chair component. I think I recall reading that there’s a way to do that, so I shall live and learn another day.

Anyhow, I do appreciate sketchup’s power to create so much detail through component replication. I realize this is hardly professional work here, but it’s more than I thought I could do. And how much farther would I have to go in order to make it professional? Well, make things conform to measurements, spend a little more time designing the chairs and table, add trim to the walls, maybe put in a photo texture wall paneling and floor. If I had hours, I could do it. And if I wanted to do this for a living, I would think about putting together a portfolio of such.

I got this design from the Phineas and Ferb episode, “Brain Drain.” The control pad is seen after 2:00.

My number one goal with Phineas and Ferb, however, is to do their house. But that’s going to take some work.

Or, as the case may be, lack thereof:

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Here’s a design for a remote-controlled robot to perform tasks in space. I’m proud of the level of detail although the proportions, as usual, are a bit off. Hey, it’s called sketchup, not formalpresentationup or productiondrawingup.

I think the arms need to be articulated with another joint. Then again, humans manage okay with just one elbow per arm, so what does my robot have to complain about?

Many years ago I commissioned a drawing of a space tug from a professional graphics artist and he charged me eight hundred dollars for something less detailed than this. Also, for a professional, he was decidedly unprofessional, but that’s another story. Anyhow, doing the graphics these days by myself is more fun, more rewarding, and less expensive. Now if only I had some good rendering software . . . .

Isn’t it adorable? On the left, you have hammerbot creating a pile of ore chippings at the base of the cave wall. Then on the right is shovelbot, carrying the ore chippings to a wagon. Observant viewers will notice that the scene has been horizontally flipped because I collaged the picture the other way, then realized I wanted it to read the activity left to right.

Anyhow, I’m not done with the mining bot zoo. I’m thinking there should be a transbot. This is not a bot that dresses differently, but rather a transport vehicle that will haul the ore wagons in and out. We’ll see.

Then there should be a helperbot, which will do things like swap batteries, provide basic maintenance, and even tow defunct bots back outside. If a robot breaks down, we’re not sending other people in to fix it, we’re sending in another robot. That’s what helperbot is for. Coming.

You need a robot to pick up after hammerbot, and that’s shovelbot. The shovel is a bit small and the camera is a bit large, and also I’d like the camera mount to tilt down enough to see what gets scooped into the shovel. Then shouldn’t the shovel have some kind of tilt mechanism so that it can dump its load into wagons?

Well, the reason you make these graphics is to see the problems before you go to the expense of actually building the thing.

1. I used MS Paint for the background, thus the jaggies. I think there might be a way to minimize them by changing the background in sketchup, we shall see.

2. I would like to show the lamp beam, but Paint doesn’t support transparency or that alpha channel stuff.

3. I still need to move the wagon out from the front and park it somewhere near.

4. I need to make a shovelbot.