May 9, 7PM San Jose, CA   

TheTech Museum in San Jose, CA is about to introduce it's new Rovin' Robot Guide "ZaZa" to the public. The machine's a pre- iRobot RWI Model B21 running BeeSoft OS, mightily hacked into a split personality by Tech Roboticists Brian Rudy, (who crafted Linux code to handle sensor operations) & Mike Drennan, (whose Window's programming handles ZaZa's stereo camera, speech synthesis & animated video lips). Plans discussed for the machine included Museum Guide & Conversational Voice Recognition/Synthesis Eliza Therapist, but the problems of closely surrounding crowds  & multiple conversations  can overwhelm sensors.  Brian has also created a ZaZa info web site, as well as a basic Browser Web Control Interface which displays a video window of what ZaZa sees  & will also show  position  on a museum floor map graphic.  ZaZa's trial run was quite impressive as the machine chatted away while it's girdling sonar sensors enabled it to successfully perform obstacle avoidance navigation through a forest of admiring humans.  After a successful run, ZaZa was joined by 2 other robot pals, Springy & Chachi, & the partying began, hitting full swing when  a Cye showed up.