Here's a great way to reuse an old cellphone.

Software engineer Jatinderjit Singh built a simple robot out of Lego Technics parts, a cheap micro-controller, and an infrared interface, then attached a cellphone so that it could control the robot's wheels and arms via the IR link.

His "tele-operated mobile internet robot" or TeMo can be controlled from anywhere in the world where there's cellphone network coverage, using a tiny web server and a graphical interface installed on the phone.

The robot also sends images from the phone's camera back via the web link to let the controller see what they are doing, and Singh hopes to have video running soon.

Here's a video overview of TeMo on YouTube (also available on his project homepage).



Next, he wants to put infrared or laser sensors on TeMo, so that it can accurately map out its surroundings.

It's an ingenious project and it makes me wonder if the hundreds of millions of cellphones discarded each year could find a new lease of life. Perhaps there's even money to be made in repurposing them as remote controllers for household robots or appliances.

Will Knight, online technology editor