hypothetical question

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hypothetical question

Post by gillmacca » Sat Apr 02, 2005 11:33 am

Hypothetically, if you had unlimited money, how close do you think could come to making a real KITT?
As certain thinks that are on the car, are not possible at the moment, i.e molecular bonded shell, what would you use instead

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Post by FuzzieDice » Sat Apr 02, 2005 11:58 pm

Ok, if I had all the money in the world, I'd be working on Dryden but I'd make him into a real robot car.

- AI: I'd be programming my own, so it'd take me awhile. But then I COULD also use Ultra Hal Assistant (http://www.zabaware.com), which I just recently purchased. I'd have to fine-tune the speech recognition more, and buy some really REALLY good microphones. It still would need further programming.

- New Dash could be done by Mark's Custom Kits (markscustomkits.com).

- Computer could be put in the back trunk area, along with some deep-cycle marine batteries that don't give off gases. In a T/A though you'd probably have to fit a small computer (They now have these tiny form factor PCs that I forgot the names of) in the front dash area.

- Chrysler actually had made a turbine engine for a car, so it's possible. But with the right engine, and some NOS, and an electronic transmission, you could very well get speeds of up to 300 mph. Would be easier to put such a setup in a Trans Am though than a Pontiac 6000, however.

- Self-driving... Well, we can tap into the autocruise and get the engine to accellerate/decellerate by computer control. It can be done to the brakes and transmission too. So the basics are controllable by computer. BUT, you also need good programming to stay on the road, watch for hazards, etc. and good video equipment that will still see even in rain, muddy situations, etc. THAT would take some programming, not just money.

- Forensic lab - possible, depending how much room you have in the car and all that. You can also put biofeedback sensors in the car seats and arm rests, as well as interior cameras. Again programming needed to read and analyse these scans and also facial expressions.

- Rocket jets, oil slick, smoke screen - all possible.

- There IS a special scratch-resistant type of coating/paint that has been available for many years, and a special electro-something that supposed to keep your car from getting too dirty or something. I forgot what exactly. My dad had a Chevy S-10 pickup that was supposed to have that on it or something. Funny thing was, it never worked. It still got marred up just like any other vehicle and he never abused it. :(

I think it's not just money that would make the car, but a lot of technology and know-how. If money WAS no problem, I suppose you could hire a lot of scientists, build a huge lab and do research and work on it. Though I don't think you'd get any farther than what the researchers already have in this day in age.

I think the closest we have come yet is those who already built KITT and KARR replicas.

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Post by gillmacca » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:07 am

FuzzieDice wrote:-- Self-driving... Well, we can tap into the autocruise and get the engine to accellerate/decellerate by computer control. It can be done to the brakes and transmission too. So the basics are controllable by computer. BUT, you also need good programming to stay on the road, watch for hazards, etc. and good video equipment that will still see even in rain, muddy situations, etc. THAT would take some programming, not just money.
I believe this technology is available and could possibly be used now.
I saw a programme a few years ago, here in the UK, about installing devices to a car to keep it a certain distance from the car in front, and also keep it in the middle of the lane, so in theory it could drive around a bend.
It could then use GPRS to get to its destination, but would probably need some sort of sensors in all road signs/stop lights, and also pick up what is ahead of it (in relation to animals/people on the road)....if this happened then it would be able to drive to any destination

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Post by gillmacca » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:09 am

The database access that kitt has, and being able to communicate with Devon, and with Michael via watch, is already available via wireless transmission (don't know how easy it would be for the watch though)

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Post by gillmacca » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:14 am

One of the hardest things to do I think, would be to get Kitt to respond verbally the way it does it Knight Rider.
you could programme, so it responds to certain commands..i.e. open left door would open the left door.
I say a car on tv, that was converted for a disabled driver and everything apart from steering was controlled by voice input, and the car was converted by the disabled driver's daughter! So, Im sure, more expert people could do a better job

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Post by FuzzieDice » Sun Apr 03, 2005 3:42 pm

gillmacca - Try going to http://www.zabaware.com - and looking at Ultra Hal Assistant. They have a free version (but the free version does not support speach recognition so you have to type into it). I have the purchased version that supports speach recognition and am going to try working on getting an AI in Dryden, my Pontiac 6000 robot car restoration project. So getting the car to respond IS a daunting task. You have to deal with road and other external noise that the AI system has to cancel out to hear you. As it stands, Ultra Hal Assistant happens to hear his own voice and gets confused.

Alternatively, the driver themselves could use a hands-free mic system plugged into the car while in it to further cancel out noise and ensure the car understands the driver. But since I want to get Dryden working as a show car for car shows and stuff, I need him able to communicate to anyone via external/internal mics (like KITT does). Like I say, with today's off-the-shelf technology, it *is* a duanting task.

There IS a radio wrist-watch available I think I saw on Amazon.com.

Click on the "www" button below my post here and then go into the "links" page on my site for Dryden. Scroll down to the areas on computers, robot cars, lab, electronics, gagets, etc. You might find some interesting links that pertain to the possibility and technology of robot car building.

Hey, this is a new and fun hobby - building robot cars. :) I also have a forum for discussing this too, and all are welcome there as well.

I just feel that while we can make some big progress, the idea of having a car like KITT built from what is available to only consumers is still a ways off. But we're gaining. Technology progresses rapidly so you never know in the next year or two or five, we could very well accomplish it!

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Post by Knight2000 » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:50 pm

I'd built KITT out of titanium and coat it with some kind of diamond-based product. Should make it pretty tough, though maybe not tough enough to go through bank walls!

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Post by FuzzieDice » Sun Apr 03, 2005 11:20 pm

NOTE: I just edited my profile so that the www link should be visable and points to Dryden's site. :)

Knight2000 - Isn't there bullet-proof cars now days? I wonder how they do that? I think don't gov. officials have some kind of special alloy their cars are made of or something that is bulletproof? I know there is a bulletproof type of glass. But I don't know what else they do for protecting gov. motorcades or if it's even available to the general public. I would imagine it might be only for government use, for security reasons, I'd expect.

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Post by Paul » Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:48 am

FuzzieDice wrote:Try going to http://www.zabaware.com - and looking at Ultra Hal Assistant. They have a free version (but the free version does not support speach recognition so you have to type into it). I have the purchased version that supports speach recognition and am going to try working on getting an AI in Dryden, my Pontiac 6000 robot car restoration project.

As it stands, Ultra Hal Assistant happens to hear his own voice and gets confused.
Thanks man. :) You made me lose a whole afternoon playing with this thing. Even typing to it is fun, but once the rest of the family saw it they want the full version.

As for Hal hearing his own voice, not sure how you'd address that in a car, but simply at a desktop PC, use a headset earphones-and-mic setup...that's what I do. The mic is only sensitive enough to pick up your voice right in front of your face, it won't pick up any other external sounds like the TV or what-have you...and Hal's voice will come direct to your ears, not into the room out of your PC speakers, so he won't hear it like he can through a normal computer mic.

Now all we need is for someone to create an animation of KITT's voice modulator for the character window and we'd be set! :D

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Post by FuzzieDice » Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:37 am

Paul wrote:Thanks man. :) You made me lose a whole afternoon playing with this thing. Even typing to it is fun, but once the rest of the family saw it they want the full version.

As for Hal hearing his own voice, not sure how you'd address that in a car, but simply at a desktop PC, use a headset earphones-and-mic setup...that's what I do.
Well, the Free version of Ultra Hal Assistant doesn't support voice recognition. I do have the headset/mic I bought with the full version of the AI. I also have the Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 and also have installed the Speech system (SAPI 4 I think) that comes with the full version of Hal. Now, even at that and even with a couple training sessions (control panel, speech icon, and one of the tabs/buttons there you read some text for awhile to "train" it into you default profile. Even at that, it sometimes gets confused even with the headset mic, and doesn't recognize my voices. I asked in their forum about it but don't know if I'll get an answer. :? I think it also depends on our dialects and how well we pronounce our words. I guess I got more of a lazy "city" dialect out of habit so maybe I'm not speaking clearly enough for the system to recognize me. Sometimes I get some problems during the training sessions as well.

I was hoping though to have it so that I can have the voice through my Altec Lansing speakers (which sound better than headphones ;) and then also be able to talk via the boom mic I have, and at least the neighbors in my building won't think I'm talking to myself. :lol: but also in prep for working on Dryden's AI.
Paul wrote:Now all we need is for someone to create an animation of KITT's voice modulator for the character window and we'd be set! :D
Done:

http://www.ultrahal.com/files/detail.as ... 1&iType=17

:) I tried it and it kinda works but sometimes gives an error. Plus you have to have Microsoft AGENT installed as it's an Agent-based Skin I think. Unless the free version of HAL includes it. I'm not even sure.

I wish they had one of KARR.

Also go to http://www.haptek.com and look for People Putty. You can CREATE head-based characters for Ultra Hal Assistant with that thing! Imagine using the British Male voice and a face of Devon. :) I hear you have to rename the face file to an .htr extension to use with Hal though. I'm considering getting this. I do have the Agent character editor I downloaded off Microsoft's site (just do a search there for it and it should turn up somewhere), but haven't had time to really play with it.

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Re: hypothetical question

Post by KARR_Lover » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:31 am

gillmacca wrote:Hypothetically, if you had unlimited money, how close do you think could come to making a real KITT?
As certain thinks that are on the car, are not possible at the moment, i.e molecular bonded shell, what would you use instead
I'd think I'd start by molding the frame of my car with Titanium metal. Then the windows would be done up in shatter proof safety glass. Now the AI, that would definately be a challenge. But there is a recent scientific breakthrough where they melded organic material to a microchip which I believe would be the basis for creating a sentient thinking machine. Plus by melding your own genetic material to the computer's vast array of microchips and processors would in fact make it kind of more loyal to you in a way I guess.

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Re: hypothetical question

Post by FuzzieDice » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:58 pm

KARR_Lover wrote:Plus by melding your own genetic material to the computer's vast array of microchips and processors would in fact make it kind of more loyal to you in a way I guess.
So can working on him yourself while he's online. ;) After all, cars seem to know who cares for them. :)

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Post by KARR_Lover » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:07 pm

Well, yeah, but a genetic imprint on the main CPU components would alleviate alot of time consuming programming. I mean the AI could detect a different genetic mass that indicates he/she is not it's designated partner. Of course relatives with your same DNA traits might be a glitch in the system.

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Post by FuzzieDice » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:28 pm

Thing is, how would the car detect such DNA? Just by sitting in a car seat it wouldn't be possible. It'd have to have DNA scanners everywhere someone would put their hand like door handles (inside and out), steering column, etc. Guess it could be done.

I did read a news story about a "brain in a dish" that was able to link to a computer and do some kind of processing or another. Pretty neat. :)

One thing I do have misgivings about biological CPUs is that how would you back up the data and stuff? I mean they "grow" with the data and have a certian imprint. If the CPU is dead or destroyed, you can't just replace it with a new one as it'd have to go through all those same years of experience to "grow" into the data again, even if the data was backed up externally on a hard drive or disk, the brain itself would have to be just so to give the same exact results. And if this technology is anything like snow flakes (no two are alike) you could lose your robot friend forever, just like you would anyone else.

I suspected KITT had such a biologically-based brain in the series because they never thought to back him up or restore him or just replace the CPU electronics and reload his programming and database to get him back. They all acted like once that CPU was gone, HE was gone.

I prefer working with fully electronic entities that can be backed up and restored to identical to it's previous state. At least then if mistakes or accidents happen, you don't loose all that hard work. :)

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Post by Paul » Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:33 pm

FuzzieDice wrote:
Paul wrote:Now all we need is for someone to create an animation of KITT's voice modulator for the character window and we'd be set! :D
Done:

http://www.ultrahal.com/files/detail.as ... 1&iType=17

:) I tried it and it kinda works but sometimes gives an error. Plus you have to have Microsoft AGENT installed as it's an Agent-based Skin I think. Unless the free version of HAL includes it. I'm not even sure.

I wish they had one of KARR.

Also go to http://www.haptek.com and look for People Putty. You can CREATE head-based characters for Ultra Hal Assistant with that thing! Imagine using the British Male voice and a face of Devon. :) I hear you have to rename the face file to an .htr extension to use with Hal though. I'm considering getting this. I do have the Agent character editor I downloaded off Microsoft's site (just do a search there for it and it should turn up somewhere), but haven't had time to really play with it.
THANK YOU! That is very cool. It hasn't errored for me yet. As Michael might say it's nice...real nice.

I haven't yet tried the people putty yet though.

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Post by coolgyger » Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:04 pm

If you ask me, all is possible with the exception of the scanner. I mean KiTT's scanner did a wide varity of things, like jam electronics, hack into computer databases, which is all well and good and quite possible, but to be able to break down a chemical to it's molecular level, like KiTT did in KvK when he scanned the turbine fuel that KARR left behind and was able to display it down to the chemical bondings in a matter of seconds? Not possible with today's technology, but maybe in the future......

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Post by FuzzieDice » Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:07 am

I think I read somewhere where someone made a KITT-type scanner that was also able to use microwaves or something or other that could display an image on a monitor. Was pretty neat but the image was all kinds of colors of the rainbow I think it was, like some kind of multi-color negative. Not an actual true photo color image. I wish I remembered where I saw that.

Paul - I'm going to try People Putty again. It didn't work great in Win98SE when I had it but I have WinXP Pro now and hopefully it might work better. They have a demo there but you can't save the characters or use them in Hal unless you buy the program which I think is around $50 - $60. Not bad though for what it can do.

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Post by kittfan69 » Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:57 pm

As far as bulletproofing goes, I once watched a program about bulletproofing and the cost alone is staggering! :shock: The body panels themselves are generally unchanged. However, the whole car from top to bottom is gutted and a thick layer of suppressant material (such as kevlar) is inserted directly behind the shell. Outwardly, this doesn't change the visual effect of the car, but to install bulletproof glass in a replica which you intend to drive would be folly because authentic bulletproof glass (such as in the presidential limo) is usually no less that 2" thick! This of course inhibits use of the window except for stopping bullets. NOT PRACTICAL AT ALL!! :lol:

The concept of bulletproofing is brilliant, but at the same time, with the restrictions of modern technology we will have to wait for a much lighter and more practical design in the future. Oh, did I mention that the bulletproofing procedure adds considerable weight to the vehicle?! Unless you were to beef up the suspension accordingly, you might be driving a lowrider! :lol: :wink:

For those who want to jam radar and tricky things of that sort, you would probably want to wait, unless you were crazy enough to bribe millitary officials or break into a millitary warehouse to get this type of technology. Although, I'm sure that it would have to be downsized considerably to fit into a small scanner! :lol: :twisted: :lol: :wink:

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Post by FuzzieDice » Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:09 pm

kittfan69 wrote:For those who want to jam radar and tricky things of that sort, you would probably want to wait, unless you were crazy enough to bribe millitary officials or break into a millitary warehouse to get this type of technology. Although, I'm sure that it would have to be downsized considerably to fit into a small scanner! :lol: :twisted: :lol: :wink:
There's already radar detecting devices for cars so maybe something small could be integrated into a car PC computer or something. Better than nothing. :) Also I think I've seen some jammers here and there but I forgot where. There are some I think electronic hobby sites that sell kits you can build that will also jam cell phone transmissions up to a certain amount of yards or feet away. They put a disclaimer though I think that it's for educationaly purposes only. :twisted:

A good place to get ideas are some of those electronics hobby sites like hobbytron.com I think is one. Look at the tabs across the top menu of the page, they have some interesting areas and stuff for sale. At the moment I don't know of any others. Used to be Radio Shack had cool stuff but now days they don't have much of anything like they used to. :(

Back in the 80s when KITT was on TV, I lived at Radio Shack. ;)

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Post by edwardknight2007 » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:43 pm

I would take a Pontiac FireHawk, and take out all of the existing dash and seats and replicate KARR, but also have someone design an AI Which would respond like a human as far as driving skills and be able to converse like michael and KITT. I would probably find a way to replicate KARR's voice.

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Post by FuzzieDice » Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:38 am

I never was to fond of the Firehawk though. I don't know why because I liked the 2000 - 2002 (was it) Firebirds. Not a bad car though. Would be mean enough looking for KARR. Especially if you keep him all jet black and add a yellow scanner. :)

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Post by Knight4life » Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:45 am

The other thing with bullet proofing is that the car's body tends to get damage when the bullets strike the car's body(i am not considering pennetration here),Kitt's body was scratchless even when they use to fire a high caliber machine gun towards it,in reality,i think it's not possible.

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