Imagine waking up and not knowing how you got somewhere, what you just did, and where that eyebrow went. That’s presently not there, which effectively gives Vector a multiple personality disorder – with blackouts where, for better and worse, the SDK allows the hijacking of Vector. I had expected more in the way of interacting with the cloud itself – for example, renaming Vector’s wake phrase/word, or allowing behavior change during normal operation. I think I was expecting a bit more from the SDK, which is my fault and I acknowledge that. And the SDK documentation itself, so far, is pretty good.
This is where they shine – when it comes to sharing the code. Be careful with blood spatter Vector is not fluid-proof.Īfter that, it was a simple matter of firing Spyder up – part of the Anaconda data science platform for Python, but available standalone – and ran some of the example code, tweaking it here and there to get a feel for the capabilities of the Vector SDK Alpha. To get back to normal operation, raise and lower Vector’s arm again. Vetor’s IP address will then be shown where his eyes are. It’s not available through the app on the phone, and there’s a trick to it (in case you’re looking for it yourself) – you have to tap Vector’s top button twice, then raise and lower his arm. I installed the Alpha SDK, and I configured Vector – which involves getting the IP address of Vector. It’s amazing how those eyes are really the center of how we see Vector. I found this through force of will, largely because Vector was sitting impatiently on his charger for almost a week making R2D2-ish sounds while giving me the baleful look of Wall-E when I walked by. Within it you’ll find the link to the SDK documentation, and within that you’ll find the actual downloads. I found the Vector SDK Alpha release note through an Anki blog entry not as easily found as I would have liked.
Yet when it comes to information on the product, it seems pretty hard to come by information users/expected are expected to have. It has apparently sold well, a testament to their marketing. And too, I suspect, the project has grown faster than the company has – a testament to engineering. Frankly, the beginning novelty of Vector and it’s potential is what seems to be allowing them not to pay as much for this faux pas. I am a bit disappointed that no one at Anki answered my tweet on it to date – and so I used a Douglas Adams reference about hiding things when I tweeted them again.Ī fair criticism of Anki is that they aren’t very good at organizing the information and updating customers when they’re doing pretty good things.
Anki vector code 915 software#
In my last post here, I said that the true value of the Anki Vector to me would be determined by the Software Development Kit (SDK), which wasn’t yet released. Installing the SDK – which, fortunately, was easier since I am already running Anaconda (Python) for other things I’m fiddling with.