In order to run speech recognition software and give KITT the illusion of life, it was neccessary to install a computer in the car.
My first computer I put together in 2005. It was a VIA Mini-ITX system and only had a 800MHz cpu. For the time, it was fine, but eventually I realized I needed a more robust system to better utilize my software and all the Flash displays I was using. So, in March of 2009, I got a barebones 1.6GHz Dual Core carputer system from Mobile Computing Solutions. The specs of the new computer are:
I added a 2.5" hard drive and ported all my programs and software from the old computer, including the voice recognition software. During the upgrade, I added some new commands, refined some of my original Flash displays, and added some new display graphics.
You can see videos of the computer in action on my YouTube channel.
The computer is connected to a relay board via the parallel port. Then I wired the relay board to various functions I wanted to control with the computer. That way, I can define commands to control stock car functions, or anything else with the relays. The new computer is working great and runs my software much more efficiently. Since I have my carputer on the trunk shelf, I added some Knight Rider styled graphics to the computer case for display at car shows.
Thanks to Gus "vampireKnight" for the awesome Knight's head graphic.
