MAKING A ROBOT READ A BOOK

I. A Robot Reading a Book?

We've been busy watching the NBA playoffs and analyzing the Bulls' chances for upsetting the Boston
Celtics, which is apparently why we've missed this story that has had other sports bloggers wagging their
tongues for the past few days. Why anybody would bother to flip over the Bulls logo and think they see a
Robot reading a bible while sitting on a bench is beyond us...

Can we see what they're talking about? Sure... but who spent enough time looking at the rotated logo to
discover a supposedly hidden double image that doesn't make any sense to include? A robot? Reading a
bible -- or some sort of large book? What does a robot or reading have to do with Bulls or basketball?
Nada! See, the "hidden" images included in the FedEx and Baskin-Robbins logos mentioned actually
mean something relevant. And those logos don't need to be rotated to be seen. We're going to go with
silly coincidence on this one.

Ulysses "Seen"

It has been quite an odyssey, so to speak, for Rob Berry, Mike Barsanti, Josh Levitas and Chad Rutkowski,
the partners in Throwaway Horse and the creators, in one sense or another, of the webcomic Ulysses
"Seen." Berry and Levitas started out doing a fairly straightfoward adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses,
with extensive notes and translations by Mike Barsanti just a click away from each page. Then the iTunes
store picked up their comic for the iPad, but Apple asked them to censor some of the content (ironic, in
light of the novel's history) and then reversed itself after the issue drew public attention. And now the
creators are closing the circle by bringing the comic into print: They have signed a deal with independent
publisher Atlas & Co. to bring out a print edition of Ulysses "Seen," which will hopefully be on bookstores
shelves by BloomsDay.

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I talked to Berry, Atlas and Rutkowski about the new project and the challenges involved in
bringing an interactive webcomic into print.

Brigid: Was making a print edition of the Ulysses comic part of your plan from the
beginning? If so, what role did you feel the webcomic would play in creating and
promoting the comic, and if not, at what point did you start thinking of a print edition?

Rob: Most of my plans about making comics instead of paintings (as I used to do) revolve
around the notion that I wanted to make stories and books instead of one-of-a-kind objects. So
everything I've been doing these past couple of years has been seeing where the web and print
models are alike yet different. We always knew there'd be a desire to see this kind of a project
through to print, so it's designed with some of that potential in mind, but as an educational or
social platform we wanted to make sure Ulysses "Seen" was something completely different on
the web or iPad.

Brigid: From a purely technical point of view, one of the features of the webcomic right
now is that you can click on a panel and go directly to Mike's notes. How will that work
with the print version?

Rob: Yeah, that's a great example of one of the differences about the shape of web content
versus print. And there are a lot of nuances in Joyce's work that I can keep somewhat enigmatic
in my comic adaptation so that Mike can explain further through the Readers' Guide. I really
happy to say that Atlas & Co wants to preserve that kind of scholarship approach to the project.
This means Mike will be adding a new version of his Readers' Guide notes to fit the print model.
Really, really happy about that.

Brigid: Another format question: The webcomic is formatted horizontally, to fit a

computer screen, which can be awkward in terms of shelving in bookstores and libraries.
Are you going to keep that or reformat the comic vertically?

Rob: I designed the comic adaptation in the "landscape" format because I felt that there's a
different kind of interface going on in entertainment platforms these days. We're being given a
choice for reading books and watching movies seeing family photos all in one presentation
arena; the monitor, and the monitor is, for the most part, horizontal.

But the design choices I made to keep in line with this trend will remain when we move to print.
The comic is horizontal, so it makes sense that the book would be as well. Comix is a language
of design to a large part, so changing the page design would be like starting over from scratch.
We'll be working right alongside the people at Atlas & Co to put together an attractive design
that I think any bookstore or library would be happy to feature on their shelves.

Brigid: On a more philosophical level, how do you think the experience of reading the
comic as a print volume (like the original novel) will differ from reading it digitally? Do
you think it's purely a mechanical difference, or does print add gravitas?

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Rob: Well, I think that in comix as it stands at the moment there's a certain truth to that as it's
relatively easy for cartoonists to get their work out in the world as a webcomic. There's a certain
perception about art and literature in general that one's talents are measured in whether or not a
stranger would pay money for them and that an unpublished author or unpaid blogger is "merely
an over-ambitious hobbyist." I've never really had much patience for that kind of thinking,
however.

With Ulysses "Seen" I and my partners set out to use our combined talents to give people a new
way to look at a really great novel and we took that goal very seriously whether it was for free on
the web or as a book in the neighborhood library. It'll feel great, believe me, to feel the book in
my hand, to hold the physical product. There's a feeling there that I suppose is much like
"gravitas". But it's always really about the work you do behind the product, not the product itself,
right?

Brigid: Will you be altering the pages to remove any of the nudity or other potentially
problematic content?

Rob: Oh, absolutely not! It is a valuable point, however. A friend of mine is the comics librarian
at Columbia and we had a conversation once about Moore and Gebbie's Lost Girls, a beautiful
book that is a "must have" for any collection, but where do you put it in a public library? The
Rare Book Room so people have to wear gloves when touching it?

Our Ulysses "Seen" is meant to have and respectfully portray all the earthiness of Joyce's 1922
edition of the novel. But to see it filed in a certain category or on a certain shelf because of that
would, I think, be just as sad as placing it next to Witchblade in the "graphic novel" section by
sheer alphabetical order. It's a tricky business, that sorting out of content, and not something I'd
be particularly good at. But would we even have these same questions come up if we didn't some
how still believe that in America comicbooks are for kids? Would we even have a "graphic
novel" section?

Brigid: Your first volume covers the first chapter of the book, Telemachus, and also
Calypso, which is the fourth chapter. Are you rearranging it?

Rob: Right you are; "Calypso" is the fourth episode (Joyce didn't like the word "chapter") in
Ulysses and the next one we're covering. These episodes depict events that happen more or less
simultaneously on Bloomsday and I made a decision about a year or so that I was going to go
chronologically through the day to make things a bit easier on new readers. There are echoes
between the main characters' lives that are easier to showcase this way and I feel it moves people
a bit more into the meat of the drama by highlighting those similarities right away.

And it opens the door for something I wanted to do with episodes 2 and 5 ("Nestor" and "The
Lotus Eaters"). Those two chapters will be drawn by me at the same time and presented together
chronologically as well, jumping every couple of pages from one to the other. A bit more
cinematic approach, perhaps, but will still get them all in there. Promise.

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Brigid: How many volumes do you anticipate the finished work to be? Will it be longer
than the original?

Rob: There are 18 episodes to Joyce's novel and all of them present unique structural problems
for translating into the language of comix. It's difficult to say exactly then how many pages of
the comic each episode might yield, but the plan is for me to draw two episodes a year for the
next eight years. And two episodes seem to give us a nice size print volume with the Readers'
Guide.

But the first episode, "Telemachus," is 21 pages in the novel and it took me 68 pages to carry it
off in the comic. James Joyce's Ulysses is 732 pages. Does this mean it'll take me 2,360 pages to
translate into comix? I certainly hope not, but this may be why some of my peers look at me like
I'm crazy. It's a very big book.

Brigid: Can you tell me a bit about the creation process—how you and Josh divide up the
story into pages, and how you create each one. They look like watercolor paintings—is that
right? And about how long does it take you to do a page, from start to finish?

Rob: All the adaptation work from novel to comic book storyboard is done by me, usually after
the four of us have had a chance to get together and talk about the particulars of a given chapter.
After those storyboards are done we all sit down together to edit. Josh then does what we call a
"floorplan," putting in the hand-lettered text and key-lining the panels, so I'm actual putting my
drawings back in around the lettering. We make a black & white file first from my ink work and
then I do a watercolor version. Josh steps in again then enhancing the rougher watercolor through
Photoshop. He'll be doing a lot of free-hand drawing in the coming chapters as well with sets,
props and patterns we'll be using throughout the book.

Brigid: Here's a technical question for Chad: Who owns the copyright on this? Is Ulysses in
the public domain?

Chad: We are using the 1922 version of Ulysses which our research indicates is in the pubic
domain in the United States. You'll notice, for example, that Project Gutenberg is treating the '22
as public domain in the U.S.

Throwaway Horse, of which Rob is a member, owns copyright to Rob's illustrations, the
arrangement of the text and the Reader's Guide, among other things. We do not own the
underlying text of Ulysses or the words themselves.

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Brigid: OK, James, I just lost an hour of my life browsing the Atlas & Co. website. How
would you describe your company's focus, and how does Ulysses "Seen" fit into it?

James: Thanks so much for spending some time on our site, Brigid. We are publishers of quality
nonfiction, focusing on memoir, biography, and long-form reportage. Our primary concern is the
quality of the prose; the works we publish have a distinctive voice, a sense of literary tradition,
and a consciousness of craft. What really interests me is story-telling; i'm a biographer (Delmore
Schwartz, Saul Bellow) and journalist as well as a publisher, so it's all part of the same narrative
impulse.

Brigid: Is this your first graphic novel, and if so, what sort of challenges do you anticipate
that a prose book does not present?

James: We have not been publishing fiction; my feeling is that other publishers are adept at
finding the new novelists, and have more experience, so we've focused our energies on what we
do best. But I am obsessed with the graphic form, and avid reader of Daniel Clowes, Art
Spiegelman, the late Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb and other graphic artists.

Ulysses fits our mandate as a publisher: it's a literary classic, unabridged and in its original form.
What's exciting to me is that the entire book is there; the illustrations are an enhancement, not a
simplification. The technical challenge will be to include the scholarly commentary that's part of
the package; we will find a way.

Brigid: How did you first become aware of Ulysses?

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James: My father, a physician by trade, was a Joyce freak, and loved to read the book aloud; I
heard a lot of it before I ever read it, in high school. Forty years ago, as a graduate student at
Oxford, I studied with Richard Ellmann, author of the definitive Joyce biography, and I've
considered myself an amateur Joycean—very amateur—ever since.

Brigid: Who do you see as the audience for this book, and how will it be marketed?

James: This is a Ulysses for a large and diverse audience: The young reader wanting an
introduction to the book; the college student who knows the book and can enjoy it in this new
form; and readers like myself, for whom Joyce is a familiar presence and who want to read the
book in a readily accessible form that will allow them to linger over the words — to give the
words a new dimension — without having to embark once again on the long march through the
whole book. It's a way of savoring Joyce.

We intend to market the book to these audiences in a targeted way, through course adoption; and to a
trade readership. It's going to be beautifully packaged, most likely in paperback, not as a "fine" book but
as a book to carry around—not just to own but to read.

Setting the Stage for Building a Robot

I will be doing a series of articles outlining the steps we have taken in building our robot.
Both Benjamin and I are newbies at this and thus it will be written for newbies. Articles
will be focused on a robot that will compete in the Fire Fighting contest, be able to roam
around the house and just be a fun learning tool. The 68HC912B32 is our processor, so
articles will be on interfacing to the B32 to various mechanical devices and sensors using
Sbasic as our programming language. Who are we?

We are a father and son team. I (Doug) am the father old enough to have a son in college. I
am an Electronic Engineer by training and I direct the international division for
information systems of Campus Crusade for Christ. As a hobby, I built my first three
computers from scratch, called Home Brew in those days. My son,Benjamin, is a second
year Computer Engineering student at UCF (University of Central Florida). I am the main
builder with my son the consultant, who has put me many hours ahead on this project with
his extensive knowledge.

Why a robot?

Count on it, if someone finds out you are building a robot they will ask why and what will it
do. Almost no matter what you say it will do, it will leave them cold. It will never do enough
to meet their movie expectations. Plus they don’t, for the most part, understand the why of
building a robot. You and I do because we want to create and explore and we like the
challenge. So I tell them that I am entering the computer in the Fire Fighting contest. This
is something they can understand plus it gives you me goals to shoot for.

My real reason for building a robot goes back to a night when I was in grammar school
and stayed up dreaming about it. It has taken 35 years to become a reality. This is actually
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my second attempt at a robot. The first one was a couple of years ago based on an IBM PC
386SX. Weighted a ton, actually moved around but the CPU ate too much power and
would not stay alive for more than minutes at a time. It was a failure in the robot sense, but
I gained knowledge especially on what not to do.

Setting your goals

In any project you need to set goals or you will just wander around and maybe
accomplishing nothing. So you should have goals that you can aim towards. It may be small
(fire up a micro and turn on a led) or large (enter a contest). If it is a large goal then it
needs to be broken down into manageable and achievable goals or discouragement will set
in. Steps in setting your goals maybe:

 Do research on what has already been written and done. Get on the net and explore
and learn what others are doing.   Go to the local library and explore books on
robots. Take your time and enjoy this step. Write things down as you go.
 Analyze what you can do. If you are a beginner in electronics and computers, start
small and then build from there.
 Write down your goals.
 Get started. Once the above is done, just start moving. It’s called tossing your hat
over the fence. Once the hat is over the fence you are committed to climbing the
fence. My hat in this case was deciding on the CPU and buying it. With real money
committed you have to do it.

For example our goals are:

Main goals

 Enter the Fire Fighting contest. Therefore it must meet those requirements and has
enough abilities to compete.
 Have a robot that can just wander around the house and be a building base for
future projects.

Note: These goals are not mutually exclusive, but do cause compromises that will
cause the robot not to be the best in each world. Fire Fighting robot need to be as
small as possible to get through the doors quickly and still do the job. House robot
and building platform needs to be large enough to go on carpets and carry various
sensors and have strong enough motors to do the job.

Sub goals for steps to form robot reading a book

 Robot can be no bigger than 12" by 12" by 12" (fire contest)

 Needs strong base with strong motors
 Large enough wheels to go across carpet
 Need wheel sensors to judge speed and to keep going straight
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 Candle detection sensor(s)
 Floor detection, edge for real world and line for Fire contest
 Wall sensors (no touching)
 Way to blow out candle
 Portable power source
 A electronics platform that wiring can be easily changed
 Feedback device while robot is on own to know what is happening on inside of CPU
 Feedback device while robot is sensing to know what is inside a text book
 Need detection sensor(s) to make sure that is reading a text book


 Principles in building a robot

 Use connectors between assemblies so you can connect and reconnect as much as
possible things. This will happen a lot!
 If your robot base is layered like ours, make sure the layers come apart easily and
the wire connectors are long enough to test while layers are apart. This is important
for you will have to test between layers and having it lay open allows you to see if it
has the right voltages, etc.
 Three ring binders. Building robots is about building information. I have two
binders, one holds all the information on the B32, second holds Encoder and other
articles, spec sheets. This has greatly increased the speed of the projects for I can
always find that article or information I need.
 Document what you have done. Keep a notebook of ideas. Paper is better for
remembering then gray matter. Save the gray matter for creativity.
 Tools. Get the right tools and have them there at all times. These maybe:
o Digital Volt Meter. Need the accuracy of digital. Analog has it place here
also.
o Digital Logic Probe to test what is happening on the input and outputs. Will
tell you if it is a pulse, if it is high or low and you can judge roughly the duty
of the cycle (by how leds change brightness). Get this a Radio Shack for
about $20.
o Proto-Board breadboard (where you can put chips on and use wires between
connections). I have two. One that sits on the desk with its own power supply
to test circuits and for some of the interfacing to robot. Second is on the robot
itself to hold the electronic. You can get these at Radio Shack or electronics
store.
o A scope would be nice but expensive. Borrow one if you can. While at Radio
Shack I found on sale a ProbeScope that has an RS232 connector into your
PC and turns your PC into a simple scope. Last one there and got it for $30.
It lets me see the signal, lets me know the period and frequency doing the
math for me and it’s duty rate.
o A work space with everything handy. I had to carve out a work space that
would allow me to work a few minutes at a time without having to set it up
each time.
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 o A PC to program and download to robot. With a family of four kids the
family computer is maxed. So I borrow my work notebook that is usually
home with me. If that is not possible get a low end PC that is cheap on the
second hand market. Any 486 should do it for this project. The most CPU
intensive part of this is the browsing on the net which can be done on another
computer.
o Organization bins. My wife got fed up with our mess in our work area and
we straightened up my stuff. With the various needed pieces in bins
everything is now locatable.

Conclusion

Have fun working on your robot, it will be a worthwhile experience.  The next article will
be on the choice of the 68HC912B32 and why; choosing the programming language and
choosing the CPU kit. It will be hopefully a lot more into making it happen. Future articles
after that will include: using Sbasic with the B32 board, hooking up H bridge wheel
drivers, using an RF link to/from PC to robot, using the Victor compass and wheel
encoders.

Photo for making robot Doug and Benjamin in front of work area.
ProbeScope and Digital Logic Probe.  The
ProbeScope was great in testing and
debugging the shaft encoder.  It hooks up to
your computer and uses it's power.  Only
problem is on my notebook computer has
only one RS232 port.  I could freeze the signal
and analysis it. 

The Logic Probe is great for testing CMOS

logic.  You can test if it is high/low or pulsing
and shows the results using both LEDs and
sounds.
Work area.  Not a lot of space but it does the
job.  Far left is all the books on the shelf.  The
two notebooks on floor is the documentation. 
The table is left over from the kids home
school days.

Bins are to the right.  I can't seem to figure

out where to put the Nuts and Volts
Magazines.   They are so oversized they don't
fit anywhere.

The important thing is keeping everything

within reach so time is not lost getting up.
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Two Laws of Robotics
The first introduced in "Runaround." These
laws describe three fundamental rules that robots must
follow in order to operate without harming their human
creators. The laws are:
1. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human
beings, except where such orders would conflict with
the First Law.
2. A robot must protect its own existence as long as
such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.

REFERNCES

 Finger Board II: (Handy Board w/o IO)

 Mekatronix is a manufacturer of Autonomous Mobile Robots, Robot Kits
interesting bases http://www.mekatronix.com/

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