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.