Babbling Robot Head is perhaps one of the finest examples of our group's efforts to meld art and technology. It is certainly one of the classiest. Brooks Coleman who is a genius at wood crafting, designed and crafted the various woods that went into this piece. The wood elements are as diverse and rich as purple heart wood and oak and as raw as tanzania root. The organic brain in this robot is a piece a tanzania root that Brooks filed and fitted perfectly to this piece. The rawness and natural ridges of the wood root give it a very natural organic looking brain. The base of the piece is purple heart wood and the neck and collar bones are pow amavia woods. Brooks who also does metal forging tailored the metal nose and half head piece for Babbling Head while Laurie Davis forged the eyes. The eyeballs are hammered silver with l.e.d. lights illuminating the iris centers. The eyeballs are also servo controlled and capable of rolling. The neck and the lips are made of soft plastic for mobility. The lips are molded black silicon and the neck pipe piece is actually a dryer vent pipe. This robot is fitted with an exhibit controller board that operate a series of hobby servo motors that move the lips, eyeballs and neck areas. A sound synthesizer provides the computer voice simulated speech that bring the Babbling Robot Head to life. Alex Iles was very instrumental in developing and programming the exhibit controller for this piece. Bill Craig assisted with programming and the speech synthesis.
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