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Portable Autonomous Paintball Gun Sentry Robot watch!

youtube.com — This thing is full of win.

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  • Alex2, on 07/05/2008, -4/+100Spy!
    • destron, on 07/07/2008, -1/+100SPY SAPPIN' MUH SENTRY!
    • Asianwaste, on 07/07/2008, -1/+7Dammit Dammit Dammit!
    • dsmx, on 07/07/2008, -2/+15Just need to get hold of 400 more metal and we can get a rocket launcher on that.
    • MrTea, on 07/07/2008, -3/+10GENTLEMEN
    • gn0stik, on 07/07/2008, -0/+14Now if he could just make it say "are you still there?" in a drugged sounding child's voice.
    • thetron, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4Just lay down your weapons and walk away!
    • darthgoat, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3"Take it like a man"
  • Evolutuon, on 07/06/2008, -0/+134An accomplishment that fires back. Props to that kid.
    • Futurejunior, on 07/07/2008, -4/+2but does it smile back?
    • TheSuperunknown, on 07/07/2008, -3/+3Did someone finally pair one of these with a marker that doesn't suck?
    • Ty1erDurd3n, on 07/07/2008, -3/+2I feel like all portable sentries come in brief case form. When are we going to see some backpack deployed sentries or perhaps one that fits into a manilla envelope...
      • Ducttape21, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1The iSentry. Because it just kills. And never stops.
    • kelmaster1, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6this is kind of scary

      http://willysm38.home.comcast.net/~willysm38/000_0 ...
      • Mononuclear, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Is that a glock sentry?
      • jaymulder, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1It's just an airsoft glock.
      • HonoredMule, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1I hope his IE is clean and doesn't suffer from flashy "punch the monkey" popups.
      • stotch, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1there is something creepy about that . ...
    • fatjoe, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2ah *****..... so this is the real world origin of miles dyson / skynet
    • megamod, on 07/08/2008, -5/+2that looks...kinda fake. It's always in the zoomed in mode where you can't see if someone might be holding/aiming it. You barely see it shooting in 3rd person and when it is in third person it looks like it's just randomly spraying. I could be wrong...but I'm just sayin'.

      I'd rather be proven wrong than just flat out gullible.
    • MrHyde81, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1No Digg because he refuses to release the source code.
      • Ducttape21, on 07/08/2008, -1/+3As much as I like open source apps, I really think he deserves to patent that and sell it.
  • damian7, on 07/06/2008, -21/+3Make it remote controlled, make a ton of them, create a subscription website and allow people to shoot each other.

    Win?
    • datawinds, on 07/06/2008, -8/+1thats a damm good idea! :=
    • mk3k, on 07/07/2008, -1/+25Nope. The game is fun because of the physical action. All you are describing is a FPS. Go online and shoot your friends.
    • NaziHatinChimp, on 07/07/2008, -1/+4Um, that is not a bad idea.
    • Disease, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2Go outside and play it otherwise you'll soon be playing virtual golf like in Wall-E.
    • Mononuclear, on 07/07/2008, -1/+1Been done
  • Rikushix, on 07/06/2008, -0/+111Trampoline Drop was the best part.
    "I'm never doing that again."
    • brad3378, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3Here Kitty Kitty............
    • alexkball, on 07/08/2008, -1/+1Yeah after the first bounce he and the viewer both realize he has nowhere to go...I could tell that was gonna be painful.
  • Slovenian6474, on 07/07/2008, -1/+138"Sentry going up!"
  • chrissku, on 07/07/2008, -0/+67This kid is a genius! Kudos.
    • say592, on 07/08/2008, -4/+3Eh

      Not really, I did the about same thing in my Sophomore robotics class.

      I am quite impressed though. His looks alot better than the one we (me and my teammate) made, and it looks to have a promising future.

      For the record, his is 10x cooler than ours, simply because ours shot tennis balls using a mechanism powered by servos. They wouldnt let us bring an airsoft gun to school like we wanted, so we had to modify it quite a bit.
    • razz8806, on 07/08/2008, -1/+5his direct website: http://www.paintballsentry.com/

      he is looking for feedback, so it might be good to check it out
  • ot1234, on 07/07/2008, -46/+3So damn OLD. Why is this on the home page?
    • Ryansmellsfarts, on 07/07/2008, -0/+12Because not everyone has seen it.
    • zyl0x, on 07/07/2008, -4/+37***** SHUT UP. I'm so sick of this "OLD" *****. 90 years is old. 10 months is not old.
    • anillop, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4First time for me
    • acr2001, on 07/07/2008, -1/+3OMG IT'S OLD!?!?!! STFU.
  • alexcroox, on 07/07/2008, -22/+3http://digg.com/mods/Paintball_Sentry_Gun
    • D14BL0, on 07/07/2008, -3/+16Too old, never hit front page, quit bitching.
    • alexcroox, on 07/07/2008, -5/+3erm, i wasn't... Merely providing an alternative link to watch the video and get a bit more information on it!
      • Osirus1156, on 07/07/2008, -1/+9Then why didn't you link straight to the video?...
      • alexcroox, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1to give the original poster credit maybe?
  • WannaBeSquare, on 07/07/2008, -4/+67A Spy is Sappin ma Sentry!
  • voodoo7, on 07/07/2008, -12/+1I'm in for one. WTF? Where is the bag o crap? Errm, oh, thought this was Woot.
  • Augie1969, on 07/07/2008, -1/+15So...what am I looking at here? A motion sensor with some kind of object recognition software?
    • fritzek, on 07/07/2008, -0/+19Basically a camera, very fast algorithm for object recognition and movement detection, some nicely optimised controllers, pair of strong stepper motors and a paintball gun. If its a kid, it must be really genius. But I'd say its a cybernetics student.
      • jeshakespeare, on 07/07/2008, -0/+14Well he said in the description he had zero programming experience before the project, so presumably not a student in the field. Probably just a big fan of terminator or a future leader of robot rebellion.
      • volve, on 07/08/2008, -1/+6Correct me, but the gun-mounted camera is zoomed in for all of the video, right? Otherwise how is it picking-up targets off camera if it has only 1?

        Color me impressed. That's a pretty damn accurate and fast algorithm he's come-up with.

        Well done sir!
    • nathanww, on 07/08/2008, -4/+1My guess would be it's just a multi-directional motion sensor
  • zyl0x, on 07/07/2008, -1/+139Put a real gun on that thing and I finally have something to defend my house during the zombie apocalypse!
    • leerayIG88, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9What if it runs out of ammunition?
      • zyl0x, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Well I hope you would then climb up on the roof and reload. Maybe reduce the firing rate...
      • leerayIG88, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6Another problem...the gun would only shoot the zombie in the body...not the head? Are you able to aim for the head?
      • russ3, on 07/07/2008, -1/+14Will it save the last bullet for me?
      • Evi1d33d, on 07/07/2008, -1/+25Hit it with the wrench.
      • Kingoftherings, on 07/08/2008, -1/+3NEED A DISPENSA HERE
    • KingVegas702, on 07/07/2008, -2/+3ill need one of these to go with my 12gauge and my rolling shutters on my casa. im always redy for the zombies!!!! lol
    • EverTheCynic, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4You would have to program it for headshots, which might be challenging.
      • Hrodrik, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Just make it shoot between the eyes, with the help of eye position recognition software.
      • CedEx, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2They have face recognition software built into P&S cameras. No reason why you couldn't put that algorithm into your aiming routine.
      • EverTheCynic, on 07/07/2008, -1/+3Would the face recognition slow the reaction time down? We can't have any delays when it comes to hordes of zombies. Also, one must take into account the decomposed or mangled state of some zombies. Some of their faces might not be all that face-like. We'd better do some trials before the actual apocalypse kicks off.
      • PimpinOnWelfare, on 07/08/2008, -1/+2H4X!!1!
    • CSharpSauce, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Or something the real military would be interested in :)
    • jacexxxedge, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9I'm so glad someone agrees that there will be a zombie apocalypse.
      It's not a matter of if there will be one.
      It's a matter of when!
    • nathanww, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2In other words, so that instead of a zombie apocalypse, you're dealing with a robot uprising
    • Wubbawucky, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1I think a zombie outbreak is every man's fantasy...its a scenario thats so fun to plan out; guns+moving targets+mall=Gold
    • ZeroFive1, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2I bet that kid could get a job in the military.

      No kidding.
  • Fatcheeseguy, on 07/07/2008, -2/+172Laptop gun ftw.
    • matt11885, on 07/07/2008, -1/+24Perfect Dark ftw!
    • EverTheCynic, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6That's the first thing I thought of when he carried it out there. You win this round.
    • Greengoo, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5I loved tossing that thing on the ceiling above the stairway to the bathroom.... nobody EVER realized where it was until it was way too late.
  • jackmaht, on 07/07/2008, -3/+8that thing had some serious balls per second. i wonder what fps it was shooting at?
    • doctechnical, on 07/07/2008, -12/+3"that thing had some serious balls per second. "

      That's what she said!
    • Fanrir, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2It looks really similar to an Ion with a body kit, possibly a Shocker. Depending on what type of controller board he had in it and what type of hopper it could be anything. It sounds about like 16 BPS.
    • dafragsta, on 07/08/2008, -6/+1Your mom has serious balls per second.
      • puttly, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1yeah its just an ion, sounds like it capped at about 14bps
    • logan2448, on 07/08/2008, -1/+1what frames per second it was shooting at?
    • idiosyncrisia, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1It looks like a stock ion with a red shell body kit. The stock ion board is capped at 17 balls per second, and most likely was shooting around 250-280 feet per second by the sound of it.
      • idiosyncrisia, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Sorry I realized this after the edit timer, but I do believe it is either firing at 10-11 balls per second due to the fact that it would be easier to have the marker set to full auto instead of walking the trigger. The stock Ion board is capped at 10 or 11 balls per second for full auto.
  • D14BL0, on 07/07/2008, -2/+220Considering that this is just a high school kid's project, with no experience with code before this project, that is DAMN impressive.
    • Mononuclear, on 07/07/2008, -2/+9yeah I doubt the story about him never programming before and being in HS is BS, unless all the software and everything was already done and he just put the pieces together.
    • Quickstrike, on 07/08/2008, -0/+11"My education level is HS"

      It never said that he was currently in HS. It could just mean that since graduating, he has had a lot of free time on his hands.
    • se1zure, on 07/08/2008, -3/+3Considering there is about a 99.99999% chance he used some sort of open source video analyzing equipment (It is highly unlikely that somone brand new to programming would be able to analyze video for movement.) he is a douche for not releasing his source.
  • tjex, on 07/07/2008, -1/+113-Wonder if you can slowly crawl past it without getting shot

    -Wonder how many times the neighborhood cat will get hit.
    "Mom, why is fluffy covered in orange paint and all spastic?!"

    • bs0l, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1Great idea... I might buy one just to get that damn cat that walks around at night and craps in the front. Or that dog across the street that always escapes.
    • Asay, on 07/08/2008, -0/+3I wondered the same thing about moving slowly past it.
  • hamGrenade, on 07/07/2008, -1/+10damn it engie! why don't we have a dispenser?

    i'd love to see that thing in an actual game.
    • Nollykin, on 07/08/2008, -0/+5Can't see how it'd be fun. You'd simply have to avoid that area lest you get hit- because it's not like in an actual paintball game you'd be allowed to shoot a laptop + all that servo equipment with paint, or run up to it and kick it to break it.

      though... maybe if it were enclosed in a paintball-proof box, with a big "DEACTIVATE/ACTIVATE" button on the back, forcing you to get round behind it... NOW THAT'S an idea.
      • NodOfficer, on 07/08/2008, -0/+3Upon deactivation, it sends out a signal to the operator so the operator can scream out "SPY IS SAPPIN MAH SENTRY!" right next to teammates.

        Then the guy runs back to rearm it, only to get shot in the back by the initial guy who turned it off.
      • Digger1123, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Ya, just put a big ass case over the laptop and then put an IR receiver hidden on the case so you can activate it and deactivate it without getting near it.
  • dragonstar08, on 07/07/2008, -0/+18Now the only thing he needs is the Portal Gun.
  • nukemben, on 07/07/2008, -0/+17Jesus, I cannot believe something like this has not properly been done before. MASSIVE market potential. Just mount it on wheels and put some AI on it. Games could be a reality, well except the portals bit. Why on earth has a large company not spotted this niche yet! Humans VS AI paintball machines ftw!
    • zeddyorg, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2It has been done before but with a BB gun -> http://www.thesentrygun.com/
      • mrlost117, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2there test 2 vid is hilarious.

        For those that watch, from what Ive read on the site the sentry is much better at tracking objects further away than up close, which is why it looks like it sucks. Comparatively it does suck to the paintball one, but it's still good fun.
    • TheSuperunknown, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5I would imagine it's an insurance nightmare having an autonomous marker. You can't yell at them to stop, they can't see something like a raised mask, etc. You would need to dedicate a ref to each one so they could be policed. Then there's the problem of abuse, which is fairly high given the amount of paintball vandalism taking place. Someone could set one of these up somewhere and walk off.

      There's also some limits to the application in games. The thing would wreak havoc on referees (Perhaps it could be designed to ignore a certain color to resolve that). They would also have to be impossible to "destroy," or they could be fitted with a pressure-sensitive switch with a target on it: Shoot the target and the system shuts down. Overall, though, a lot of trouble for a system I think few players will actually appreciate.
      • PchopXprs, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Seriously, I get overshot enough as it is.
    • Hoogie7Dowser, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line July 7th, 2008. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, July 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
    • iSinned, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1won't work when mounted on a vehicle. all the motion around it will drive it crazy.
    • proverbs17, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0I saw an actual product like this in this months 2Extreme Paintball magazine. One of the suggested uses was for training.
  • thebza451, on 07/07/2008, -20/+6the phrase "full of win" is full of gay
  • fafster, on 07/07/2008, -1/+64Now fat people can play paintball, too!
  • hotpuck6, on 07/07/2008, -0/+131The trick-or-treaters will love his house this year.
    • doctechnical, on 07/07/2008, -0/+22Oh, YEAH! Just leave a bowl full of candy next to it with a sign that says "Only take one. You have been warned."
  • NaziHatinChimp, on 07/07/2008, -2/+4Damn pretty good for a young kid. Wish I didn't have such a small income myself or I would invest in it, but hopefully my digg will help him out a little.
    • jsaya, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2From his site: http://www.paintballsentry.com/
      "6TH VERSION:
      This version will require the aid of a machine shop and/or a molded plastics company (of which I need help finding)"
      I hope the Digg exposure helps him out on that!
  • anagoge, on 07/07/2008, -1/+35This takes balls.
  • Asvetic, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9That would be cool in paintball combat. The fire rate would need to be dropped slightly to make it competitive and adding giant disable button/target would be cool too. I could see some castle defend situation were it could be humans versus sentries.
  • derekcate, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5Hmm ... I have deer that come and eat my garden, squirrels that raid my bird feeder ... when can I buy one? And I wouldn't get in trouble with the city because its non-lethal!!
    • doctechnical, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2I don't know that paintballs would do much to scare away deer, they're notoriously stupid.

      As far as squirrels are concerned, I know a guy who wired his birdfeeder to a the hot AC wire. Only something hanging on to the pole would complete the circuit. Squirrels lost interest fast.
      • Knowltey, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5Yes, but paintballs hurt, I'm pretty sure deer can feel pain.
    • Mononuclear, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2I would imagine shooting a deer with a paintball gun is illegal in most places.
    • cynicalbrit94, on 07/07/2008, -1/+1Paintball + Squirrel = possible lethality. You get sued.
    • puttly, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1It may not be lethal but you will lose your vision if you get hit in the eye..
  • cerealjynx, on 07/07/2008, -0/+20Holy crap, where's an EMP device when you need one?
  • kuehlschrank, on 07/07/2008, -0/+129"Are you still there?"
  • zaptoman, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6A-frickin'-mazing.
  • TheModernArdeo, on 07/07/2008, -0/+20The kid has a future in the military.
    • SlimFastForYou, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2I dunno, I think the military has had sentry guns for a long time. Reason I think they're not used a lot is that they're a great way to get your own troops killed.
  • Ghoztt, on 07/07/2008, -0/+58"I love you"
    "Is anybody there?"
    "Gooodbyee"
  • BuckCynnie, on 07/07/2008, -0/+12Rabbit free garden!
    • plundstedt, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5And when wind blows around the plant leaves?
      Plant-free garden!
    • masgaster, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1And the deer would never eat my tomatoes again!
    • bakajojo, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Expect to clean up the paint on the garden.
  • Drazzim12, on 07/07/2008, -0/+80Check out his preliminary motion tracking tests with an Airsoft pistol (wait for the end):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm37Nxxq_QY
  • KingFog, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2Maybe old, but I seriously want one of those... I can think of so many uses for that.
    • CedEx, on 07/07/2008, -1/+1I can only think of one use for it... and that is to shoot stuff with it.
  • takeout007, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1boy, this video makes me want to play paintball again. I think its time to pull the old ion out of the closet and dust it off.
  • rmxz, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5Sounds like a useful product to protect gardens from birds/deer/rabbits and maybe even gophers.
  • FaithclubDotNet, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5I'm glad someone did this. This is a project I wanted to do in 2001. I wanted to start with manual controlled paintball turrets. Then I was going to step it up to autonomous. The problem I had was that I could not get any motors that could be controlled by the 5 volt output of a printer port. I searched all through the web for reed relays and stepper motors, but came up blank.
    • doctechnical, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5Opto-isolators are your friend.
  • Chaoticx, on 07/07/2008, -1/+34I went to a presentation at my school last semester of a guy who made something very similar. This one looks to be basically the same. The one I saw had a few limitations which he described, but also a lot of cool features. He told us how he programmed the whole thing from scratch as a Physics major and having no prior knowledge of programming, so I thought that was pretty impressive.

    Basically, he mounted the gun on two motors: one for horizontal rotation and one for vertical. The limitation in this was that each "degree" of rotation in the motors did not match up exactly to normal degrees and so he had to map these and store them all in a 2D array which was aligned with the camera image. The camera was just a webcam but it had rounded corners when you looked at it on a screen. He demonstrated this by showing a checkerboard through the camera and showing that the lines were curved towards the edges, so that all had to be aligned as well. His took about 3 hours to align itself on first start but every subsequent startup was only about 30 seconds. Also, it was programmed to pick out a color, so when he turned it on he threw a red shirt out into the crowd and had people throw it around and the thing followed it everywhere.

    The other limitation is picking up 3D space. The only ways to do this are to either use some kind of sonar location (laser, sound) or 2 cameras to use (similar to 2 eyes for depth perception) and he hadn't implemented that yet. All in all it was really impressive for just a research project done by a college student. Would be interested in seeing where things like this go in the future.
    • veenenen, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3Here's the link. They're friends of mine.

      http://www.zero-op.com/
    • vikblazin, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1i was reading an article of autonomous cars, and its basically the same system but in 3d. im not sure what it was called but something like LIDAR or something like that, and they used systems with about 6-10 cameras to track the surroundings and then the lidar to point out anything in the environment that the vehicle should avoid and go around.
    • moviscop, on 07/07/2008, -2/+1i didn't read it, but it was long. thus, i dugg it.
  • dagnabbit, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9Told you not to touch that darn thing.
  • Mikey129, on 07/07/2008, -0/+55Just think what a Level 3 version of that could do
  • tiuk, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8This might just be -too- awesome.
  • devoss, on 07/07/2008, -1/+2My neighbor's noisy dog is going to be in for some real rough nights.
  • Fallout911, on 07/07/2008, -11/+3Win percentage = OVER 9,000!!
  • kitaljevich, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3That thing must've been a bitch to test...
  • SlvrEagle23, on 07/07/2008, -1/+21CAUTION: ROGUE ROBOTS!
  • Soup4Brains, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4I wonder how this thing would handle multiple targets.
  • TeraRealm256, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7this is what COD4 is missing....Perk: Sentry Placement....OMG...that would be amazing! Screw the claymores!!
  • H1tchh1k3r, on 07/07/2008, -1/+17Isn't anyone going to welcome our new sentry gun overlords?
  • teamgwho, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3perfect. Now I don't have to go outside and tell them damn kids to get off my lawn.
  • lendrick, on 07/07/2008, -0/+26Maybe if he's lucky, someone at DARPA will see this video and offer him a job. :)
    • heyitsgarrett, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6I've sent the video to some higher-ups here
    • hokie47, on 07/07/2008, -0/+10I am sure something like this can be useful, but I really think we are not ready for 50 cal machine version of this. Programing something to shoot moving object easy, progrmaing something to only shoot the enemy a lot harder.
      • CSharpSauce, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7Hit that one on the head, any first year electrical engineering student could build this. However in order to work in a real world situation, it defiantely needs to be more accurate on its shooting selection.
      • mcprogrammer, on 07/07/2008, -0/+3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgpQBZF2sZQ
      • mrASSMAN, on 07/08/2008, -0/+2I was thinking about that.. I think soldiers could wear some type of RFID sensor that confirms friendlies before entering the sentry zone. Seems doable to me.. just need a lot of testing.
      • Nollykin, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Exactly. It wouldn't have many uses, just yet. Too much danger from friendly-fire.

        ***** zombies, though- Robots will kill us for sure.
    • Tyrghast, on 07/07/2008, -0/+14Most likely not... The DARPA engies are thinking "I can code this in my lunch break."
      • mrASSMAN, on 07/08/2008, -1/+3That doesn't mean they aren't looking for creative interns perhaps..
    • Nollykin, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1I'm thinking the military has no doubt already designed something much, much more advanced.
    • Aroundtheworls, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1Sentry gun technology combined with this is the stuff of my nightmares: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
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