The people at mindsensors are great; they created the famous NXTCam, NXT SumoEyes and much, much more. On their “coming soon…” page, minsensors publish the new Mindstorms sensors they’re working on. Right now, it features a touch screen overlay for the NXT display (!) and an altimeter. The last two sensors on there right now are both android related.
Mindsensors’ NXTShield (left) and Teemino (right). image 1 source, image 2 source
NXShield for Arduino
… “is designed to fit on an Arduino. It will have 4 NXT motor ports, 4 NXT sensor ports and several RC servo motor ports. The NXShield will attach to an Arduino Duemilanove or Uno or similar Arduino clones. … The programming for the NXShield will be on Arduino, using usual Arduino C/C++ programming environment.”
Teemino – Android ADK and Arduino compatible board
“Using this board, you can use your Android phone as an integrated robotics controller, (not just a remote).” On MindBOARDS, mattalan37 said that “The new Android device is similar to the coming device for the Arduino Uno (and similar form factor boards). This new mindsensors device will also be compatible with the Arduino Mega.”
So there you go: mindsensor’s upcoming android – NXT sensors. Basically they’re going to make your NXT sensors and motors fit to an Arduino Uno, eliminating the NXT block :(. The good part about this is the lightness of the board, so you’d be able to make lighter, faster (flying?) robots.
As soon as people start experimenting and doing stuff with the sensors, I’ll add links below.
