Items tagged with arduino
Think you're fast enough to beat Usain Bolt on the track? It's one thing to haul out a stopwatch, but it's another to race his time against a real-life ghost. That ghost in this case is Puma's "BeatBot", a shoebox-sized robot that helps runners continually improve by allowing them to race against a competitor as much as they please. At this point, the world is chock-full of wearables, whether they be smartwatches, eye glasses, or even clothing. That makes BeatBot a little refreshing; it doesn't require a wearable at all. Instead, all the user needs to manipulate the BeatBot is a smartphone, which they will use to input the time they'd like to beat. Users can either use BeatBot to best their own...
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Like many people, cockroaches creep me out and I would show no mercy if one crawled in my general direction. Needless to say, the only good cockroach is one that is squashed on the bottom of my shoe. Of course, there are those that take a different approach to roaches, and study them for research. Or in the case of Instructables user bravoechonovember1, turn them into mind-controlled cyborgs that respond to your commands. Like most insects, cockroaches use antennae to interact with their environment and navigate around obstacles. bravoechonovember1 decided to use an Arduino to match the neural signals that cockroaches use to modify their behavior, allowing it to “think” that it is actually facing...
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We’re sure there’s a mathematical formula somewhere that demonstrates that if you give a nerd enough time plus sufficient gadgetry and the proper amount of nostalgia, you’ll get hilarious, amazing results. Case is point is a t-shirt on which you can play Tetris. “I always wanted a playable Tshirt, well now I made one myself,” wrote Marc Kerger on the description of a YouTube video he made demonstrating the shirt. He said he was inspired to do so in celebration of Tetris’ 30th anniversary. He created the wearable game using an Arduino Uno, a pair of Adafruit Matrix controllers, 128 LEDs, a battery pack consisting of 4AAs, and 3D-printed soft buttons and hard...
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Inspired by Lego, a small team has developed TinkerBots, which are building blocks that you (er, your children) can use to create robotic toys. They’re designed to let you create whatever you want without necessarily locking you into a specific end product. The heart and brain of TinkerBots is the red cube Power Brain, which contains the battery, Bluetooth 4.0, a speaker, an Arduino microcontroller, serial bus interface, USB charging port, a gyro and ACC sensors, and the button interface. There are other cubes, including a motor, a pivot, a twister, a grabber, IR sensor, light sensor, wheels, and more, and there are plenty of “passive” building cubes, as well. You can also augment...
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If Intel wanted to, it could maintain its status quo and churn out loads of processors for most of the desktops and laptops (and many mobile devices) in the world, raking in money hand over fist for years to come, but the company, under the leadership of new CEO Brian Krzanich, is demonstrating that it wants to maintain that innovative edge with two new unconventional technologies. One is the tiny Edison development board, and the other is a futuristic way to interact with computers called RealSense. Intel Edison development board Simply put, the Intel Edison Development Board is an SD card-sized computer that features an extremely low-power 22nm dual-core 400MHz Intel Quark processor that allows...
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Although Intel is Chipzilla, the company can’t help but extend its reach just a bit into the exciting and growing world of DIY makers and hobbyists. Intel announced its Galileo development board, a microcontroller that’s compatible with Arduino software and uses the new Quark X1000 SoC processor (400MHz, 32-bit, Pentium-class, single- core and thread) that Intel announced at the IDF 2013 keynote. The board makes use of Intel’s architecture to make it easy to develop for Windows, Mac, and Linux, but it’s also completely open hardware. If this sounds similar to the low-cost Raspberry Pi board, that’s because they’re definitely of the same ilk. Galileo is just...
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Some people are just gluttons for punishment. A pair of self-professed online distraction addicts, Robert R. Morris and Dan McDuff, have created a tool called “Pavlov Poke” that will zap them if they spend too much time on Facebook and not enough time working on their dissertations. The Pavlov Poke works by using a UI Inspector (the duo used their Mac’s UI Inspector), a bit of code to produce an onscreen alert when a site is visited too frequently, a USB-connected Arduino to send the shock circuit, and electrodes connected to metal strips on a keyboard rest. Admittedly, the Pavlov Poke is essentially a gag (and isn’t a real product that you can buy), but it does speak...
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Homemade gadgets seem to be all the rage these days, and while programming used to be reserved for nerds, it's also becoming a more mainstream hobby. And honestly, a cheaper hobby to get into. With small Arduino boards becoming more popular, Olympia Circuits is jumping into the mix with the Arno Shield. It contains all the components necessary to learn Arduino programming when plugged into an Arduino compatible board without any messy wires. The original Arno Learning Kit was introduced last year, and the Shield provides another way for new users to dive into the world of Arduino and breaks down barriers to learning about microcontrollers. To allow for a wide range of learning projects, the shield...
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As the weekend approaches and the itch to tinker with something crawls up the spine of nerds everywhere, open source hardware projects like this one scratch it like nothing else: There’s a card called an Arduino GSM Shield available now, which essentially lets you add GPRS/GSM connections to your projects. In other words, you can build your own unlocked phone with it. The device can be shipped along with Arduino’s Uno, MEGA, and Leonardo boards, and the GSM Shield itself comes with a SIM card. (You can, however, use whatever SIM card you like.) With the shield, you can implement features such as making and receiving phone calls and sending and receiving SMS messages. The shield is...
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OpenXC is an open source connectivity platform developed in tandem by Ford and open source hardware maker Bug Labs. Announced this fall, the platform is designed to allow developers the ability to use an Android- and Arduino-based module to interact with a vehicle’s in-car tech, such as vehicle sensors and GPS units. The OpenXC website succinctly describes the platform as “an API to your car”. Ford announced that OpenXC beta test kits are now shipping to developers worldwide, including U.S. institutions such as MIT and Standford as well as India’s HCL Technologies. The press release specifically mentioned Weather Underground, as well. Further, at the NASSCOM India Leadership...
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Microsoft's Steve Ballmer may be credited with the "developers, developers, developers" chant, but those devs are just as important to Google. Without them, the devices based on Android would be gutted from an applications standpoint. But it seems that Google is ready to move beyond software. At Google I/O this week, the company introduced their new Android Open Accessory protocol as well as a new ADK. That ADK is a physical piece of hardware; a reference design based on a standard Arduino. Seasoned hackers and DIY experts will recognize that name, and now, Google's using it to power a whole host of devices that extend well beyond the smartphone realm. The board can be integrated into robots,...
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