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.