Etude 2

Basic Details :

Nabaztag WIFI rabbit

Ian Hunter

Digital Arts and Music Technology

WIFI rabbit

I wanted to have my WIFI rabbit being controlled, by some external object of some kind. E.g. A joystick that was connected to the rabbits WIFI server, and the rabbit itself, that would control the rabbits ear movements.

Conceptualisation of the work.

I need to try and take this rabbit apart, and see if I can work with any of its insides, of ports. Also I will take a look at its API, which I think at this moment doesn't so much. If I can get inside this rabbit I would try and bypass its packets and signal, to reroute it through some external control.



Decribe and depict what the actual concept of the etude is.

I have found several site where people have tryed to reverse engineer the rabbit to see how it works. I have found out that it uses a simple BENQ WIFI card, that should be programmable to some extent. If this is the case then I will try and stop it sending all its signals through its still very closed source server, and attempt to rewrite the API, so that I can control this beast via something else than its really badly designed website, that you must log into, and where the functions are very limited. I would also try and take advantage of it voice recognition features, that are also quite limited, as you can only ask for four words at this point, but my thoughts were that you may be able to change the reaction of the rabbit when a voice is heard.

http://www.ed-vero.com/nabaztag.html

This is a link that I found that details the information that the wifi rabbit sends and and its codes etc, this got me no further into discovering what I might be able to use this rabbit for, firstly because a lot of it is in french, and secondly because it only lists the code to get the rabbit to move his ears, and change the colour of its lights. This seems to be what most of the Nabaztag sites and blogs say, that the API is very limited and, it is not yet possible to do much with it, as it is still a fairly new product and the source is still closed.





http://www.nata2.org/2006/02/27/investigating-the-nabaztag/

This guy has managed to take apart the Nabaztag and has revealed its guts, and has tryed to discover its secrets. It uses a standard Benq wifi card, and has no obvious inputs that could be manipulated. This is why I have left the Nabaztag for dead, and leave him to tell me the weather, and read me the news in my bedroom. I don't think that it can help me to create an interactive hybrid of any kind, although I am sure that the source will eventually be opened up, either by some hacker or the company themselves. For now I will close my etude on this subject.


Documentation of Technical and Artistic Process.


Technical Analysis.

I have not made any technical developments with this rabbit, as at this moment in time when the rabbit is still so young, there is no real reverse engineered instructions, or examples of how this tiny rabbit made be used to do something other than its factory programmed actions.

References.

http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=1327&src_t=cat&src_id=gadgets&aff=1272
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag
http://blog.nabaztag.com/nabcasts/index.html
http://help.nabaztag.com/fiche.php?langue=3&fiche=29
http://napicc.blogspot.com/
http://www.gizoo.co.uk/Products/PCGaming/Wireless/Nabaztag.htm
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://pokie.dyndns.org/view.php%3Falbum%3Dnabaztag%26name%3DDSC_3623.JPG%26show%3D1&imgrefurl=http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/staf/nova/blog/index.php%3Fs%3Dnabaztag&h=752&w=500&sz=106&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=8wwOYtlQcDVXCM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnabaztag%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
http://freshmeat.net/projects/nabaztagccplugin/
http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=1810
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;229702723
http://www.toiprotocol.com/mainstream.php
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/03/nabaztag_widget_control_the_wi.html
http://www.nata2.org/2006/02/27/investigating-the-nabaztag/
http://pokie.dyndns.org/photos.php?album=nabaztag&page=1
http://www.nabwidget.com/
http://search.cpan.org/~jeteve/Nabaztag-0.03/
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,,1776901,00.html
http://www.ed-vero.com/nabaztag.html
http://philwilson.org/blog/2007/01/nabaztag.html
http://blog.nabaztag.com/programmers/index.html
http://nabazlab.sourceforge.net/index_en.html
http://nabazlab.sourceforge.net/dev_en.html

How successful is the etude.

This has turned out to be completely useless, and a total waste of money. I have abandoned the rabbit idea, that I originally thought would be able to make a really nice project. Until the source is a little more open I don't think even the hardcore hackers/engineers will be able to make anything good from this overpriced rabbit.