Here, my Nokia N9 in Europe is commanding my satellite dish in America. Clicking on a target physically moves the dish to aim in the appropriate direction, readjusting as the target moves in the sky.
The Mood Lamp project by Vittorio Cuculo, is a system using interactions to communicate an emotional state to a physical object and receive back a coherent response. In particular, through your facial expression you communicate your emotional state to an RGB color lamp . The lamp, at this point, will respond to the interaction by changing the color of the light emitted in accordance with the emotional state inferred.
The aim of the systems is to remove the mediation between human and machine typical of classic interfaces. Among the modes of natural interaction we usually have gestures, gaze tracking and facial expressions. The latter are particularly relevant because they play a fundamental role in nonverbal communication between human beings.
Some time ago I noticed that I’m spending more time building boards and less time developing and needed to increase my manufacturing capabilities. After thorough reading Dangerous Prototypes’ Chinese desktop pick and place machine forum thread I got in contact with a factory and bought TM240A – the big brother of TM220A. Earlier this week a DHL van carrying 70kg crate pulled in my driveway. After a day of hands-on learning I started building boards. This article was written after 2 days of using the machine and contains my first impressions as well as a couple of hints.
First, it is a real Chinese machine – well built, simple, and reasonably priced. At the same time, an owner must be prepared to fix mechanical issues and work around software bugs without relying on manufacturer’s support – the folks at Neoden are helpful but due to a time difference a reply to an e-mail would arrive the next day. Fortunately, the user base for these machines is expanding and the thread linked above as well as videos by Ian@DP and other people provide lots of useful info.
I was ready to face issues like air lines clogged by small pieces of styrofoam, non-functioning vacuum pumps and such; luckily, the only problem out-of-the box was racked gantry causing feeding fault. Thanks to this post in DP thread I was already aware about the symptoms as well as the fix – so I fixed it. While doing this I learned that to implement the fix no tools were necessary – a typical human finger jammed between the front support and the gantry works just as well as originally specified screwdriver.
Over a century ago, The New York Public Library was founded with a basic purpose: to provide free access to information, literature, and cultural resources for the enjoyment and enrichment of all New Yorkers.
In the late 19th century, this meant accumulating vast collections spanning all subjects and languages, erecting beautiful buildings to store these books, and hiring brilliant, dedicated librarians to serve them to the public. But what would it look like if we founded The New York Public Library today?
Look around you and you’ll notice that knowledge organizations of the early 21st century look radically different from their 19th and 20th century forebears. Twenty-first century institutions aren’t only marble sanctuaries, they’re also distributed networks. In addition to managing printed materials and catalogs, they compile big data and user relationships. Rather than only centralizing authority, they make it porous, and welcome collaboration.
At NYPL, we’re engaging the 21st century by reimagining the public in our name. Inspired by the accomplishments of the open source software movement and collective efforts like Wikipedia and OpenStreetMaps, NYPL wants to tackle some of its thorniest (and most interesting) challenges with your help. We began by buildingparticipatory websites and crowdsourcing apps to involve users more closely in the improvement of our collections. Now we’re calling directly on engineers, hackers, tinkerers, designers, data scientists, new media artists and creators of all types to help find inspirational, yet functional solutions to some of our most future-oriented problems.
To test the waters, this summer we will be issuing a series of deadline-driven tech challenges. These will be open to all, with prizes for winning submissions. The winners may directly create or inspire new tools and services at NYPL, with the potential to impact libraries everywhere. There are a number of possible areas we could focus on, but in the spirit of the endeavor, we wanted to ask you first.
In the list “Hardware hacking: Build smarter tools for on-site use”
Looking for failure is a bittersweet endeavor — it goes against human nature to look for something that we don’t want to find. Our in-house process improvements are bringing us closer and closer to the goal of zero failures. Some days everything we make is perfect, but when it’s not, our job is to find the fault before it gets to the customer. These new gimbaled test jigs run every APM through a rigorous test cycle to validate its performance. In addition, we are constantly working on things like paste handling, material inspection, plus the addition of other super-bad-ass expensive machines that do stuff.
Artist Toyin Odutola’s show “My Country Has No Name” just opened in New York, and her work ranges between gothic self portraits to damaged, blown-up photographic negatives to unfinished-looking silhouettes.
Using an Infrared Distance Sensor as MIDI Controller from little-scale:
This is a simple example of using an infrared distance sensor as a MIDI controller. The hardware setup is simple – analog out to analog input on the Teensy, ground to ground and 5V to 5V.
IR distance sensor includes cable (10cm-80cm) – GP2Y0A21YK0F – This SHARP distance sensor bounces IR off objects to determine how far away they are. It returns an analog voltage that can be used to determine how close the nearest object is. Comes with 12″ long 3-JST interface wire. These sensors are good for short-range detection. For over 1 m distance, we suggest using sonar sensors. (read more)
You can now turn your favourite music downloads into playable records made from materials you have lying around the house.
Amanda Ghassaei, 24, from San Francisco has created the world’s first laser-cut wooden records using songs from Radiohead and Joy Division.
And the software engineer has made the instructions available to download, making it possible to create your own at home.
Ghassaei previously used 3D printers to print records from her MP3 downloads.
She wanted to find a way for people without 3D printers to make their own records, and has designed a way of making records out of paper, acrylic and wood.
Ghassaei created a digital waveform file from the MP3 and converted into a PDF. Needles on a record player pick up vibrations based on the shape of the record’s surface. The waveform was then cut into the wood using lasers to create the ‘shape’ of the song.
Don’t spend any more time browsing desperately the internetz to find parts for your RepRap, Arduino kits or local sensors and PCBs distributors for your new project. I put together this worldwide list of online stores selling open source hardware. There is a big chance your country is in it and that you will finally find your favourite local online store to get open source electronics, robotics, parts, kits, materials and supplies for your hardware projects.
If you have an E-Paper Display form Adafruit, this library will allow you to draw points, lines, circles, ellipses, ASCII text and Unicode text. Oh, and display images (in the WyoLum Image Format). Please consider this an alpha release and help us find the bugs.
For my third year, I spent yesterday at the Maker Faire, in Silicon Valley. Unlike any other year, the crowds were overflowing, suggesting this movement was growing faster than the cottage industry before. To put this into context, the maker movement is yet (another) disruption to brands… The maker movement empowers people to build their own products, and share with each other –rather than buying from brands.
Adding to that – Maker brands are causes and businesses that people want to support. Smart brands (like RedBull for example) work within the maker community in productive ways to empower makers to do and share cool projects.
Why can’t two slices of pizza be used as a slide clicker? Why shouldn’t you make music with ketchup? In this charming talk, inventor Jay Silver talks about the urge to play with the world around you. He shares some of his messiest inventions, and demos MaKey MaKey, a kit for hacking everyday objects.
Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum’s MaKey MaKey kit lets you turn everyday objects into computer interfaces — inspiring both fun and practical new inventions.
Every Monday is Makey Makey™ Monday here at Adafruit! The MaKey MaKey – by Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, made by JoyLabz! Ever played Mario on Play-Doh or Piano on Bananas? Alligator clip the Internet to Your World. MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Find out more details at makeymakey.com or watch the video at makeymakey.com. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between! If you have a cool project you’ve made with your Makey Makey be sure to send it in to be featured here!
Kitesurfing is one of the most addictive sports in the world. All it requires is a kiteboard, a body of water, and a few accessories. It’s a great way to get in touch with nature, free up your mind, and exercise. Plus, you can really go crazy with it.
So what’s the problem?
Oh, I forgot one essential requirement: wind. And that’s where we have our problem: you never know whether or not there will be wind unless you live right by your favorite kitesurfing spot.
I live in Córdoba, Argentina, approximately 130 kilometers (~80 miles) away from the lake where I kitesurf. That’s roughly a two-hour drive, which I can deal with. But I can’t deal with the fact that weather forecasts are inaccurate. And where I live, good wind conditions last just a couple of hours. The last thing you want to do is clear up your Monday schedule to go kitesurfing and find yourself cursing the gods on a windless lake after two hours of driving.
I needed to know the wind conditions of my favorite kitesurfing spot—in real time. So I decided to build my own weather station.
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