[Robotgroup] Drive a Droid proposal... How to detect the "fence"?

[Bryan Bishop]

On Tuesday 08 July 2008, Vern Graner wrote:
> Bryan Bishop wrote:
> > how about limiting the range of the controller? Put up a small
>
>  > antennae in the center of the ring, wire in the controller to
>  > that, limit the range to the 20 foot radius.
>
> Interesting approach. hmmm. From a practical perspective, if the
> signal is weak enough to degrade after 10' or so, wouldn't it be weak
> enough to be "stepped on" by other RF signals? Cell Phones? 802.11
> wireless? hand-held walkie talkies? I wonder how robust a solution it
> would be.

That's a good point, so we can test by stealing one of those RC car 
systems from a kid (anyone on the list?), and then proceed to generate 
tons of RF noise from our own cell phones, pagers, and wireless 
devices -- there's hardly any way that there can be more wireless 
density/usage at First Night in that area than /we/ could generate in 
the first place. Would be a good approximation, and these RC cars are 
ridiculously cheap.

- Bryan
________________________________________
http://heybryan.org/