I want to set up a live-cam web-site and have kids remotely program the
servos and speech synthesizer of a talking "head".

I belong to PARTS, Portland Area Robotics Society www.portlandrobotics.org
A fellow member, Mark Medonis sells an animatronics kit
http://www.medonis.com/animatronics.html.

"Maxwell" is currently programmed in Visual Basic.  I was thinking, instead
of limiting the participants to those with a VB licen$e, perhaps I could use
LOGO or SQUEAK.  I know MSW LOGO, but I have just learned of SQUEAK.  From
what I've read so far, SQUEAK looks like a very good choice for remote
programming and experimentation of AI and animatronics.

In your expert opinion, will SQUEAK work, specially with kids?  Do you see
any "problems" with using SQUEAK in this planned project.  By the same
token, do you know of any "animatronics" that's perhaps cheaper?

Thanks for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Edwin Pilobello
Instructor, Saturday Academy
www.ogi.edu/satacad

P.S. - Yes, I know Dr. Andrew Black from OGI.  Just talked to him, in fact.
Unfortunately he doesn't do 10 year olds...just graduate students.  I on the
other hand, am crazy enough to try...as I have with Lego Mindstorms
Robotics.