Here are improvements to make Squeak more useful for Robot control.

1) Add machine vision tools.  I'm told eToys has video camera access but
more access to each frame is needed for autonomous robot control including
"contour" to reduce the image to arcs and lines to start visual object
identification and measurement of object speed and direction as the robot
is moving, to either intercept or avoid an object.  The same arcs and lines
may in some applications be processed into readable text, read your lips,
or other interesting things.

2) Method to stop Garbage Collection.  I see Squeak 4.5 has a menu item to
perform garbage collection so performing collections can be put under
program control but there should also be a message to stop any garbage
collection until requested or resumed.  Why?  Imagine you are in a
self-driving car powered by Squeak.  You enter a curve, turn, or need to
stop while going 60 MPH then encounter a 100 millisecond delay for garbage
collection.  That scenario could put you 8 feet off course into a canyon,
oncoming traffic, or a child chasing a ball.  So the only way is to use two
Squeaks operating in separate cores and use socket communication to
guarantee one Squeak is paying close attention to the road while the other
collects its garbage, trading off as needed.  Perhaps a measure of the
garbage pile and growth rate would also help decide which image gets to
proceed.

3) The Raspberry Pi has many pins to connect electronics to.  Supporting
those could potentially provide control for many projects for children and
adults.

Thank you.

Kirk W. Fraser
w <http://freetom.info/TrueChurch>ww.JesusGospelChurch.com
<http://www.JesusGospelChurch.com> - Replace the fraud churches with the
true church.
http://freetom.info - Example of False Justice common in America
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