Isaac Asimov’s: The Ultimate Robot

BUILDING YOUR OWN DROID

A Review of Isaac Asimov’s: The Ultimate Robot

Another addition to the Microsoft Home library, Isaac Asimov’s The Ultimate

Robot is a fine program worthy of his name. If you or anyone in your

household has even a remote interest in robots and how they work, this

educational CD will be a must-have.

In Isaac Asimov’s The Ultimate Robot, there are many different aspects and

places to explore. The program is broken down into several sections: Asimov

Speaks, Asimov’s Writings, Robot Gallery, Robotics, Chronology, Cinerobots,

and Robotoids. Every area has its own information about Asimov and robotics.

The first stop is Asimov Speaks. This is the place to go to watch videos of

Asimov and listen to his views on robots, artificial intelligence, and

science and space travel. Most, if not all of the videos are clips taken from

interviews on news shows and documentaries. While he talks about his theories

and laws, you can read along in the text box. Some words are highlighted and

serve as links to other areas of the program. While remaining

very informative, it should be noted that the video is only about 1/8 as big

as the monitor. It is pretty good quality though.

Asimov’s Writings is my favorite part of the program. Here you can read

stories written by Asimov. There are over 50 stories and essays to read, many

of them topping 100 pages long. The few stories I read were entertaining and

had a Sci-Fi element to them. Every time you turn the page, a new picture of

a robot appears in the side bar. As you read along, there are highlighted

words. If you click on them, either a definition or some background

information will pop up. This feature is especially nice if you have a

younger child that wants to read one of the stories.

In the Robot Gallery you can scope out portraits of Asimov. Again, there are

quite a few pictures of him, often at public events. Also available for

viewing are the covers of Robot City, Robot Dreams, and Robot Visions series

of writings.

A lot of information on the kinematics of robots can be found in the Robotics

area. There are diagrams and animations showing how robots are designed and

how they operate. Many articles with pictures can be looked at.

If you’re interested in the history of robotics and tools, take a look at

Chronology. Inventions from 360,000,000 B.C. to 1995 A.D. are listed here. A

brief background on many of the tools is provided as well.

In Cinerobots you can view many of the famous robots that were in movies.

Many of them are from the black and white movies back in the 50s, but some

modern ones like R2-D2 and C3PO are there as well, complete with film from

the movies. Other subjects are Virtual Reality, Industrial Robots, and

Computer Animated Robots.

The most fun can be had at Robotoids. Here, you build your own robot from

scratch. There are about 5 different parts for the robot you’re about build

(i.e. 5 robot heads, 5 arms, 5 legs, etc.). That way every creation can be

different. When you’re done building your own robot, you can click on the

animate button and it will show the moving parts and talk about the 3 laws of

robotics.

A nice feature of the program is the Search command. Simply type in a word

(say “video”) and it will list the articles that word appears in. Click on

the article you want and you’re there. If you want to check out the other

articles with the word “video”, you press the button marked “Again” and the

next article appears. No need to enter your key word again. A nice shortcut!

The graphics and music leave much to be desired, but as a multimedia

educational title it serves its purpose just fine. The audio is average, but

the voice is sometimes a little scratchy. Overall, Isaac Asimov’s The

Ultimate Robot is a program many people should consider buying, especially if

you like to read and learn about robots.

Copyright © 1995 Craig Majaski for infoMedia. All rights reserved worldwide.