Johnathan Ortiz-Sonnen | The Blog Pros

August 23, 2019

Robot Skills and Messaging APIs

Messaging services set the stage for humans to interact with programmable robots using the same devices we already use to talk with each other. That kind of interaction feels a little like magic, but it’s magic that anyone who codes can conjure. To show you what I mean, we need to look at Misty’s Photo Booth skill, which Misty demoed at Twilio SIGNAL 2019.

When this skill runs, you can send an SMS to ask your Misty robot to take your picture. When Misty gets your text, she stops what she’s doing, turns to look at you, and snaps your portrait with the camera in her visor. She then sends that picture right back to your phone via MMS.

April 30, 2019

Sending External Requests: Misty as a Security Guard: Part 2

Welcome back! In part one, we:

looked at the three main capabilities Misty uses in her security guard skill
explored the tech behind Misty’s face recognition capabilities
learned how to code Misty to use face recognition in general and in her security guard skill

So, what’s next? In part two of Misty as a security guard, we learn how Misty uses web services.

April 30, 2019

Taking Pictures: Misty as a Security Guard: Part 3

Welcome back!

In Part 1 of Misty as a security guard, we learned how Misty uses facial recognition to detect unknown people in your space. Part 2 focused on Misty’s use of web services to communicate with IoT devices. So what’s left?

April 26, 2019

Exercising Misty’s Extensibility

Misty knows the importance of playing as hard as you work. That’s why she’s willing to risk a few grass stains in her Follow Ball skill.

In this skill, Misty employs the object recognition capabilities of a Pixy2 vision sensor to chase a soccer ball as it moves around the room. Here’s a high-level overview of how it works:

February 15, 2019April 30, 2019

Working With Face Recognition: Misty as a Security Guard: Part 1

Misty’s got a new job: security guard.

Misty loves to be helpful, and this job combines a few of her different capabilities into a single working skill. When the skill runs, Misty activates face recognition and scans the environment for strangers. If Misty sees an unknown face, she calls out to third-party APIs and prints a picture of the intruder. Face recognition, external HTTP calls, and image capture are the core capabilities that Misty uses for this job.