Slightly Overdone, freestyle robotics, interactive installations, character design, Mechelen, Belgium


Howest Student Project: Robot Eye Rigs

Published on Nov 16, 2013

Like with any other sentient being, the way to look into a Robot's Soul is through his eye.
So one morning, when 33 students wanted to take their first steps into the world of robotics we built 33 eye rigs.

On November 15th 2013 we built these rigs with the final year Devine students from Howest school in Kortrijk, Belgium. We did all this work in the Budalab in Kortrijk, in less than 3 hours.

Although I was aware that they were a very talented group of people, I was still amazed by the result. The final photo-shoot was a very proud moment.
 
Magnolia Kinesics Project sulu.be/magnolia

In this project I am exploring the possibilities of dynamic and interactive body language enhancements. Read more about it here.

This second piece, MAGNOLIA, is a large reacting flower on a hat. The petals open or close depending on the mood of the wearer. This mood is measured by head-gestures, skin-conductivity, body temperature or even a brain-activity interface.

MAGNOLIA is created by Jan De Coster.
© 2013
 

Kinesics #2: Magnolia
March 21, 2013

This is the second prototype of the Kinesics project: MAGNOLIA

In the Kinesics project I am exploring the possibilities of dynamic and interactive body language enhancements. People have, for ages, tried to enhance the messages they send to people around them, with the help of, for example, tattoos or jewelry. But your mood changes constantly, even several times per minute. So I believe these enhancements should be able to change too, constantly.
The second piece, MAGNOLIA, is a large synthetic flower on a summer hat. The petals open and close depending on the mood of the wearer. This mood is measured by head-gestures, skin-conductivity, body temperature or even a brain-activity interface.

If you are a fashion professional, then contact me, so we can start co-creating more pieces !

MAGNOLIA is created by Jan De Coster.
 
Jimmy or Yummy machine Project

sulu.be/Yummy

The Yummy machine on the left is a robot that was created for Boondoggle and their client Delhaize. It has over 14 motors, controlled by an Arduino board, with a wireless link to a Flash Air interface. He has a fully functional head and neck, and two arms of which one has a hand for picking up stuff. And of course we made sure he has the absolute maximum amount of cuteness. Visit the actual campaignsite.

Slightly OverDone Studio produces interactive installations for which there are no borders between physical and virtual worlds. Only interfaces.
 

Time-lapse making of Jummy Robot

Published on Nov 4, 2012

I've spend about 4 weeks building the Jummy Machine in the spring of 2012. During that whole period there was a camera pointed at me. I selected a number of relevant scenes and sped them up a little to give you an idea of the different aspects of the build.
 

Howest Student Project: Robot Eye Rigs
November 16, 2013

Like with any other sentient being, the way to look into a Robot’s Soul is through his eye.
So one morning, when 33 students wanted to take their first steps into the world of robotics we built 33 eye rigs.

On November 15th 2013 we built these rigs with the final year Devine students from Howest school in Kortrijk, Belgium. We did all this work in the Budalab in Kortrijk, in less than 3 hours.

Although I was aware that they were a very talented group of people, I was still amazed by the result. The final photo-shoot was a very proud moment.

Music: Joseph Nothing - Or
 

NOR BERT Creative exercise in robot design
August 15, 2015

sulu.be/NorBert
NorBert is a creative exercise. In the summer of 2015 I am experimenting with new concepts and ways to assemble different bodyparts. I am also looking for other designs as a contrast to the style of robots I've been working on until now. It is very unlikely that NorBert will ever evolve beyond this stage, but you never know.
NorBert is 3D printed and Lasercut. He is equipped with a GoPro camera to see the world.
NorBert is created by Jan De Coster.
© 2015
 

Rise of the Robots

Published on Nov 30, 2015

A little Robot talks to his imaginary human friend about the future of our existence in this planet. With this film, I would like to bring attention to the COP21 climate conference in Paris, for the Robot's sake.
 

This robot wants to take your job, with a smile

Published on Mar 29, 2017

He is not ready to take any job yet, but for the past 8 months he has been working at the Audi factory in Brussels. He helps the human factory workers to assemble the Audi A1 body’s.

Walt is surrounded by more than a hundred other robots.
The big difference is that they are all in cages, while Walt sits free as a bird, amid his human co workers.

He is what is called a compliant collaborative robot, or cobot in short.

He recognises his human colleagues when he sees them, greets them with their name, and looks at their hands so they can give him gesture commands.
Besides his friendly face, Walt can also display icons or short animations, to clearly state his intentions.
Walt sits on the end of a Kuka collaborative robot, that is safe to operate among people.

Walt is part of the end result of a two year project called Claxon, with partners Audi, Imec, Melexis, Softkinetic, VUB and Robovision.

Robovision played a crucial role with their state of the art gesture and speech recognition through deep learning, and the deployment of their 3D imaging systems.

Slightly Overdone was responsible for the character design, the animation and the integration of Walt’s head and neck.

A natural way of communication between persons requires the presence of a face.

While the human face has a lot of very practical functions, most of its muscular capacity is focused on communication with other humans. The human face is capable of many forms of direct, indirect, even involuntary communication. Therefore a head with a versatile face was designed.

“I have introduced robots in many environments, even in very different cultures, but the Audi factory floor proved to be extra challenging, because the audience here consists of sturdy assembly line workers. The smiling robot face first looked very alien in their working environment, and Walt had to deal with some scepticism at first.
I am convinced that this is the way forward for collaboration between humans and robots in these environments. Very least effect is that it will bring a little bit of humanity back in the industrial machine world. “ - Jan De Coster
 
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