Ok maybe it's the right time for me to introduce myself ;) I heard about the Balloon project from Peter Long (Cambridge University) while attending to a Robotic Internation Design Contest. Actually i'm just beginning in the field of robotics, but i'm quite involved with a lot of french people mainly participating to the French Robotic Cup (around 180 teams competing each year on a different theme, each team composed from 4 to sometimes 20 members). The card seems (nearly) perfect for that use : autonomous robots. I'm at the time collecting remarks about the Balloon board, and might soon have some feedback for you (if you are interested in having them ;) I'm actually starting my third (and hopefully last) year of Phd Thesis in computer science in South of France (Marseille), and I am really interested in robotics myself (it's more a hobby than a study for the moment). I founded a robotic club in Marseille, and hope to be able to compete to this year's French Cup. I'm also willing to help out, in any way possible ;) (documentation, development, collecting feedback from teams, "advertising" to the teams competing, maybe demonstrating?) That's it for now, please ask if you have any question or comment, and tell me where help would be needed ! Regards Mathieu AGOPIAN P.S: i'm actually spreading the news about the balloon project to people working with "Planete Sciences", a national association in France, willing to bring science to the youth, and organising the French Robotic Cup (and a whole lot of events in different fields like Energy, Environment, Space, Astronomy ...). On top of the French Robotic Cup, a European Robotic Cup is held, called Eurobot Open (open, because countries from other continents also participate). If you speak french, you can give a look at http://www.planete-sciences.org otherwise you can go to http://www.planete-sciences.org/robot/concours/eurobot/garde_en.html which talks about the Eurobot Open Cup. All those people might be interested in having a cheap, efficient, low consumption, aimed at robotic , that'll prevent them from having the hassle to "tweak" a PC to fit it in their robot. I will give you (if you still want to ;) feedback from some of these people, and give you a list of what they would maybe like to have with (or on) the card, regarding software and/or hardware. Regards ========================================================================== ========================================================================== On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 21:19:37 +0100 Wookey wrote: > I've noticed quite a few new subscribers to this list suddenly (welcome to > you all). Did Balloon get a mention in some news item somewhere, or is it > just chance? > > Wookey > -- > Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679 > work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/ > > _______________________________________________ > Balloon mailing list > Balloon@balloonboard.org > http://balloonboard.org/mailman/listinfo/balloon --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mathieu AGOPIAN 06.14.56.96.41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------