Some robots aspire to greatness, revolutionizing our humanoid behaviour in ways we struggle to understand. They have traveled in space, photographing the stars like celestial paparazzi or snatching Martians up like interplanetary bed intruders. Some robots are happy to perform their everyday functions with dignity and grace, scrubbing our floors and thanking us for recycling.

It may seem that every robot has a calling that–whether grandiose or humble–makes it a valuable part of our society. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Some robots use our hard-earned energy resources to no good use, lazing around without a useful function, drinking flux and tonic all night while watching reruns of Lost in Space. They are stupid robots.

Many humans look upon such pitiful automatons as nothing more than flotsam in the whitewater rapids of human achievement, but the more empathetic among us are ready to celebrate the unique uselessness of stupid robots in grand style. Enter Bacarobo (translated), the premier event showcasing the quirkiest and most amusingly useless robots of our time.

This year the contest was held at the end of October, and the entrants were hilarious to say the least. The dancing olé-bot drew much applause, while the shivering toque robots wooed the crowd in a desperate attempt to escape their frigid prison. It will be fun to see whether any stupidly adorable robot designs will come out of our own Santa-bot competition, considering the source material. If you’ve ever built a stupid or useless robot (accidentally or not) please share your story in the comments. Sometimes the most endearing things about our technology are the parts that don’t work the way they’re supposed to.

It only took 4 hackerspaces, but we finally get to see a zombie movie inspired project; hackerspace The Transistor Takes on the Machine with a Dawn/Shawn of the Dead movie theme. Race cars disguised as zombies swarm toward the players, who then use laser tag like guns to “shoot” down the approaching undead. The whole thing is a mess of Arduinos communicating with xBees to a central iMac G3, but it all comes together rather well and is promised to be released open source.

Now all that’s left is deciding which hackerspace wins the competition. Who do you have your money on?

[Thanks Deven]

This is what happens when [Mitch Altman] comes together with hackerspaces nationwide to have a contest. In short, 5 hackerspaces  will “take on the machine” and come up with 5 original ideas for existing devices. There are a few more rules, but you can catch them in the video in the link above. There is hinting at a slot machine that mixes drinks, a bike that makes ice cream, and more. What do you guys think is in store?

This is also a great opportunity to mention the hackerspaces wiki, find a community (or start one!) near you today and maybe [Mitch] will call on your hackerspace next competition. For now, we’ll keep you up to date with each hackerspace’s project and progress.

[Thanks Deven]

The spaces in question, for those that would like a link to check them out:

NYC Resistor

Artisan’s Asylum

Pumping Station: One

The Transistor

Crash Space

You have until December 1st to get your entry into the Trossen DIY robotics contest. Unlike the last Trossen contest we told you about, this one has no clear theme. The goal is simply to make an awesome robot. Registration is free, and entries will be judged on Ingenuity, Originality, and presentation/documentation. There are prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, with the 1st place prize being the Interbotix Hexapod. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is a kit of a hexapod that is pretty quick on its feet. You can catch a video of it after the break.

[via botjunkie]

Sadly, the video above is the only information we were able to find on the “Double Slide Controller” trombone, built by composer Tomás Henriques. As well as, the instrument took first place in the Georgia Tech Center Guthman Musical Instruments Competition. Right in front of a Bluetooth bow for violins, and a circuit bending group from New York, and…wait; it beat out our favorite modified didgeridoo? Better luck next year.

[Jos Weyers] tipping us off about this lock impressioning video. It shows his final round of the lock impressioning championship at this year’s SSDev conference. Even though he shaved about fifteen seconds off of his 87-second single-lock record from last year he came in third overall because the competition averages times over several rounds.

This method of opening locks uses a file to create the correct teeth after examination of tiny marks on a key blank from trying to open the lock. We’ve seen foil impressioning as well as electronic impressioning, but video of the competitions makes this our favorite method.

What weighs 120 pounds, can fly at you near 20mph, score soccer balls, climb 90inch tall towers and more all while remotely controlled? If you said a robot from this years FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, competition congrats you’ve won one internet.

This past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (March 25-27 respectively) the Oklahoma FIRST regional competition took place. Once again I, HaD writer [Jakob] was lucky enough to not only attend, but compete! Check out our full breakdown after the jump.

Readers may remember some time back when we explained he OKBEST competition, and noticed it had striking similarities to the FIRST competition. While the build time is only 6 weeks for both competitions, that is where the similarities end. We would love to give a rehash and an explanation of differences, but readers might like to simply read and compare for themselves between BEST and FIRST and realize they are completely different games.

This years goal for FIRST, is in short, a soccer game. A field with 6 robots (1 robot per team), three blue, three red, battle it out head to head; blocking, scoring, and more to be the winner of the round. The addition of not knowing your two other teammates until the day of the match, and the inclusion of small ‘hill’s and ‘climbs’ increase the difficulty of the competition. Those looking for a full explanation of the rules and game type can find it here.

Team captain once again played the role to allow me to bring you this overview. Unlike previous robotic competitions, this was the first time our team, 3124, attended FIRST — making us rookies.

Our team’s design, if put into one word would be simple. The initial aluminum frame was constructed on kickoff day from our kit of parts. After that, to keep the soccer ball out from under the robot – we wrapped a (donated supply) wooden skirt around the perimeter of the bot. A pneumatic (donated, yet later not used, we broke too many rules with it) kicker was implemented. After having traction issues – a custom spring suspension system (perhaps the most complicated portion of our robot, two springs and a bolt) kept all 4 wheels securely on the ground.

While we were rookies, had very little funding, only two/three active members, and even more disadvantages we still managed to come out on top. By ranking 5th (out of 54 other teams) in the seeding rounds, we attended semi finals after asking teams 932 and 2842 to join us, and ended up 3rd overall; giving us the award for Highest Rookie Seed. Anyone wishing to watch some (or all) of the matches and learn how teams ranked up should check BotsnLinux.net.

First definitely is a unique experience, and I’m glad I was able to attend. Honestly, we didn’t expect to reach nearly as high as we did in rankings. But thus teaching, you don’t have to have tons of money, or a complicated system, or a large team, or the best design to win. The adventure of course taught us much more than that in the end as well. Hopefully values and ideas that can be taken and used in future endeavors for years and years to come.

Just when you think you’ve heard all you can about the N900 PUSH competition, we have some more news for you.

The original PUSH competition was only for UK members, but now Nokia has introduced the ‘Mod in the USA‘ N900 PUSH competition. Similar to the original, anyone (within region) can submit a cool mod, hack, useful creation that would use the N900. Winners will be selected, and thats when the differences start.

There will be a $10,000 for 1st prize, and smaller prizes for 2nd and 3rd. Plus a trip to Vegas to showcase the 3 winning hacks at CTIA 2010 as well as funding, N900s and support to build the mods.

Don’t have an idea but still want to try? They have a discussion group to get the juices flowing, or you could always discuss in our comments.

[Update: The original PUSH competition was actually world wide. Thanks Matt and Ricardo]

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

The day has passed, the party is gone, and all that’s left is the final interview. The Light Hack Crew gave us a somewhat shorter response then what we were used to, but it turned out to be just as sweet.

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

LIGHTHACK CREW is a trio of 3 crazy coconuts from Perth, Australia . [Dave] and [Tom] have been friends from way back, and [Sharna] is a friend from way, way back,

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

No this is our first one together.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

It was [Tom’s] idea for focusing the project of light graffiti, and that made me think of [Sharna] as she is a graffiti stencil artist.

> How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

People will love it as it is fun to create light graffiti and easy to do, all you need is the hacked N900 and the electronic LED can.

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

Hopefully continued development of the Light Hack software and bring it to other devices

>What do you think of the other winners?

well as a skater, long boards mainly, I’m interested in the soldering skaters team, the others are great too,

>Questions from our commentators.

>What are you thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

[Tom] is the electronic genius,­ but I’d say he found the Arduino pretty straightforward.

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

Great from the little I have looked at and used, the phone is very powerful, its not running a snapdragon but damn can it multi task! the open source Maemo OS is very cool, the fact that it is linux makes it so much easier to develop for, as so much is setup for it already – SDK installed VM image is the way to go.

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

I think its great, I tried the iphone, but objective C was new to me, along with the $100!, haven’t had the time for android yet. But would like to check it out.

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

We use 4 AA or 4 AAA batteries at the moment. Im sure we could wire up any sort of battery. The battery life isn’t too bad, as the Bluetooth really only is used when the buttons are pressed, and the LED’s are quite efficient.

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

HARDWARE: Bluetooth module, PIC microcontroller

SOFTWARE: I used C, for the language, GStreamer framework for capturing the video, and some basic algorithms for image processing: subtraction and a moving average filter for noise removal.

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)

>How often do you change your underwear? Underwear?

Its 38 degrees im just wearing my boardies J

Thank you again!

Like all great things, they must come to an end. As such, at 10am PST, this morning – our N900 Push competition came to a close. We had some really awesome answers, some really round about, and of course the obligatory – really bad ones. For those that are just on the EDGE of your seat waiting for the final concluding answer to stop the arguing and fighting – to settle this whole dispute. The answer, and the winners are…After the break.

Just to recap, the question -

You’re working with any one of the team winners in the PUSH N900 competition. Your team needs two like resistors in order to complete the project on time.

Luckily your work drawer is overflowing with resistors, and you know that there are only 4 different values since you pulled them yourself from old junk.

You close your eyes and reach in. What is the minimum amount of resistors you have to pull out to ensure 2 of the same value?

The Correct answer is 5 resistors. [Talin Salway],  [Sari Ibrahim], [James R. Smoot], [Jody Halyk], and [Thomas Remmert] all sent in the correct answer, were picked by us, and gracefully pass their tickets to another winner. In the end [Robrecht Noens] was the only one to respond within our 24 hour limit claiming tickets. Congratulations, and hope you have fun at the N900 PUSH Showcase [Robrecht]!

For all those that sadly, did not win. You can still keep up on the party, [Matt] let us know…

We’ll be updating our @PUSHN900 Twitter account regularly using the #PUSHN900 hashtag to help follow what you guys are saying.
We’ll be uploading video using Qik.com/PUSHN900
Keep checking the PUSH N900 Facebook page for updates as well.

And finally an explanation: The entire riddle (as a lot of readers repeated to us in the entries) is based on the Pigeonhole Principle. In the worst case scenario, you reach in and pull out 4 different values. Thus, you must pull out 5 to ensure at least 2 match.

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

Solderin Skaters are really making progress. They’ve gotten their printed circuit boards and mounting equipment all set to go, and the code and algorithms are really shaping up. All that and more updates are seen in their latest video, and blog entry.

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

[Keywan] came back from Amsterdam with an N900 and everybody here was
envious. We saw the PUSH N900 project as an opportunity to equip
everybody with such a device. Because we couldn’t think about a hack
needed other ideas. We remembered funny things we did as
youngsters and *bam* there was the skateboard idea. We called
friends here (University of Bielefeld) and there (Berlin),
*tada* there was the team.
When we started working on the project we soon realized
we would need additional help to tackle such a big
project in such a short time (6 weeks), so we asked
three more highly qualified friends to join the team.

> Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related
> projects? N900 projects?

No, this is our first project together. [Jan] and [Sebastian] worked both on
different hardware projects. [Keywan] and [Flo] worked together a
shirt design and other non-technical stuff. [Nick] is involved in
a startup developing mobile applications. He sometimes suffers from
badly designed and closed source APIs during the development on other
platforms.

> What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

We wanted to enhance a real everyday activity and
create an application beyond game controllers such as
Wii-Accessories and Tony Hawks: Ride.

> How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

We recruit a security team to protect us from fans and
paparazzi. Just kidding. We are curious how/if they will react,
but hope they will like it.
As with all open-source projects, we hope that the
work we did might be useful to other applications in
the future.

> Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development?
> Update your current projects?

We have not planned past the deadline, but we sure
would like to continue working together.

> What do you think of the other winners?

We like their projects and looking forward to meet them in
London. They are very nice and we are in contact with them.
Everybody tries to help each other. We share code, thoughts and
tips.

> Questions from our commentators.
>
> What are you thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your
> project?

The Arduino family is a great timesaver for rapid
prototyping, so we did our prototype with an Arduino. But we needed small and
tough hardware, so we decided to design and build our own PCB.
It is based on the same microcontroller, an ATMega168.

> How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

[Nick] says: It’s like a cybernetic implant which I don’t want to
miss in my life. The hardware is very powerful and to be root on
a more or less normal Linux gives you a lot of freedom. The tons
of possible frameworks are sometimes a bit confusing, but gives
you possibilities like on no other platform.

> What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source
> software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried
> Android?

We like Maemo even though it still have some glitches. Open
Source phone software gives you freedom in the hand. Just see
how the community around Maemo provide solutions for problems
Nokia didn’t see as crucial. Open Source on phones rocks!
Most of us didn’t worked much with the Android, but Nick tried
Android. For him it’s pretty painful installing an app for every
single messaging service. Google maps is nicer than the Ovi stuff
though. Developing on Android is a little more fun than e.g.
Blackberry, using Linux. But coding and running for example a rails
app on the N900 in minutes just changes the way you do developing for
mobile devices. You can even code on the N900 itself.

> (If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind
> of battery life is expected for your project?

We expect a good hour of battery life (average power consumption
of our sensors boards is about 80 mA and our batteries have 130
mAh capacity. Bluetooth, status LEDs (10 mA each) and the ATMega
drain most of the power, the sensors power consumption is almost
negligible.

> Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example –
> bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

Each Skateboard is equipped with two sensor boards. On each
sensor board, an ATMega168, running at 7,3728 MHz (to avoid
transmission errors) and connected to to an RN41 bluetooth
module, samples one triple axis accelerometer (ADXL345) and two
dual axis gyrometers (LPY/LPR5150). They are powered by through
a lithium polymer battery connected with BEC plugs to a
protection module. And of course, a large number of resistors
and capacitors. We used 0603 SMT components.

> And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to
> omit)
>
> How often do you change your underwear?

Underwhat?!

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

The days are getting closer and closer to the N900 PUSH Showcase, and as such the teams are getting more and more stressed. But the team from Sketch Your World was willing to take time of out of their busy day for our interview. As always, keep up to date on the team at their blog – they’ve started drawing on the Etch a Sketch(tm), and it even (okay, it doesn’t really, but it’s still progress) looks like a circle!

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

I ([jeez], a.k.a. [Jesus Sanchez-Palencia]) met [Annie] (a.k.a. [Ana Cecília Martins]) and [Calega] (a.k.a. [Filipe Calegario]) during my Computer Engineering graduation.
Someday [Annie] became my girlfriend and we started to work on a few projects together on some crazy stuff that we like to do. [Calega] was also working with some cool projects by his own and one day, talking about ideas, projects, life, universe and everything else, we noticed that we (and some other friends) had this will to work with digital interaction, with hardware/software/human-behavior hacking. And so we decided to create the Wouwlabs group. (wouwlabs.com)

[Patifa] ([Patricia Montenegro]) is a very skilled Architect which works as a Designer. She is a co-worker of mine. One day I invited her to give a lecture on the University about the “Relationship between designers and developers” and the Wouwlabs people really liked her work. The PUSH N900 was a great opportunity to have her working with us and to join us in the Wouwlabs! =D

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

Well, me and [Patricia] work, mainly, with Mobile development. Yes, we have some other cellular projects and yes, we have some N900 projects. One nice to have is the Qt Mobile Demos (http://wouwlabs.com/blogs/jeez/?p=135). Also check Patifa’s blog (http://patifa.wordpress.com/) !

Me, [Annie] and [Calega] have worked on several projects before. It is nice to check our blogs (http://wouwlabs.com and just click on our names there!) in order to see them. We have even built a multitouch table! :)

Me and [Annie] have one cellular related project. We participated on the first Android Development Contests with a media manager called Jambo.

On this particular project (Sketch your World!) each one of us have a job: [Annie] is our image processing guru and is handling the drawing algorithm, patifa is our designer guru and is handling with the application’s GUI and the final version of the prototype, [calega] is working with the Arduino stuff, assembling everything, and I’m responsible for the Maemo side, developing the application in Qt and porting the needed stuff to Maemo 5.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

[Calega] should answer this, but AFAIR, he had this fixed idea about Etch-a-Sketch and how hard it is to draw on them. We couldn’t draw anything on it when we were children and we still can’t now that we are grown up! So he thought that it would be nice to finally have some draws on it, now that we can program an Arduino to that for us. :)

>How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

Hmmm, happy?! :P
I haven’t thought about this, since I’m really focusing on get it done in time! :P
But I really hope that everyone like it!

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

We are really considering to do some more crazy stuff with Arduinos and N900s, and maybe do some nice applications to the N900.
We are all fully of ideas and will have to manage to have time for all of them (and to still earn some money with our regular jobs… ;)

I can say that I’m thinking of playing with Arduino+RFID+Bluetooth+N900 on the next months… let’s see… ;)

>What do you think of the other winners?

I really like all projects. Really!
I’m also willing to get to know the other teams! The video episodes are always so nice and the people seems to be very interesting.
HyperHappen did a wonderful job on this contest and they managed to get some very good projects and teams to work on it! :)

>Questions from our commentators.

>What are you thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

I’m a fan of the Arduino platform since the very first time I got in touch with it. As a Computer Engineer, I’ve worked with several other boards and micro-controllers before, but Arduino is easiest one. It is so quick to have something running on it! And you can use Wiring, which is a very simple programming language.
It’s amazing how there are some many different people using Arduino these days. From developers to artists!
Yes, we are using Arduino on our project!

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

Maemo 5 is a very nice platform! It is user-centered and developer-centered on the same time! It is fantastic how easy it is to develop an application (using Qt! :P) and get it running on your phone.
And now that we have the Qt Framework available, everything became so easy! We can do fancy applications and get them running smoothly on a phone. Yes, it is a PHONE! :)
And the N900 hardware… what can I say?! It’s best Phone ever! It’s best Tablet ever!
You have everything in it!

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

Yes, I have tried Android. IMHO, Android _looks_ nice. But my compliments stop here. I read a paper about its internals once, and everything seems to be so hackish…
I don’t like the UI itself, from none of the Phones I’ve seen so far that are running it.
I didn’t like to develop for it when me and [Annie] tried.

So yes, I guess that I can say that I don’t like Android. :)
But it’s just me, right?!

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

We use AC adapters (9v, 0.5 A).  So I expect “battery” life time about all the energy that the Earth can still provide. :)

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

We use BlueSmirf Gold Bluetooth modems, Arduino duemilenove, Ladyada’s motorshield, and two types of stepper motors:
- the ones from SparkFun (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9238)
- the ones from conrad.de: 42MM SCHRITTMOTOR (0.8 BIS 1.5A)

We are also using Etch-a-Sketch (TM), of course, and Plexiglass for the prototype’s stand.

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)
>How often do you change your underwear?

Underwear?! Do people still wear that?!
:)

Just kidding. Here in Brazil (a city called Recife) it’s so hot that we usually take 2 or 3 showers per day.
And I change my underwear every time I take a shower…

Here in Germany, as it’s quite cold this time of year, I usually change my underwear once each two days! =D

Thank you for this opportunity!
[jeez]

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

The Haptic Guide team took a moment of their time for us today. Their N900 hack is a belt that helps point you in the right direction with motors. But after our interview we found out they had much much bigger plans. Remember to check their blog for updates – including new video of their progress (sweet flexible circuit boards guys!)

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

[Mike] and [Tim] worked together at Dell for nearly two years.  After the call center in Edmonton closed, they maintained contact and soon decided to compete against each other in the Microsoft “embeddedSPARK” competition in 2008/2009.  Even though they were competing against each other, they worked together often while figuring out the Window CE development tools.  [Tim] has strong skills with software development and [Mike] is strong with hardware development.  While helping each other complete their projects, they discovered that they made a really good team.  When the Nokia PUSH competition came about, they decided to work together on it.

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

We have competed (against each other) in the Microsoft “embeddedSPARK” 2008/2009 competition and have both made it to round 2 of the 2009/2010 competition as well.  We also occasionally work on side projects both individually and together as hobbyists.
The PUSH N900 competition was our first joint venture into the world of cell phone hacking.  [Tim] had previously experimented lightly in building applications for Windows Mobile devices, but no other platforms.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

[Mike] has liked the idea of a haptic compass since he first read about one.  We spent an evening brainstorming in preparation for the PUSH competition and the idea of doing something with a haptic compass kept floating back to the surface.  We decided to expand on the idea, as a haptic compass by itself was nothing new.  Instead, we decided it would be perfectly complimented with a cell phone like the N900 to give it much more capability and even a social aspect.

>How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

We largely suspect people will react in one of two ways.  First, there will be a large group of people that have never seen the like before and will look at it with an open mind and see the great potential of the product.  Second, there will be a group of people that have seen a haptic compass before and will make the incorrect assumption that the project is just an unoriginal copy of that.  We hope that the second group will look at the project again and realize that the belt itself is only a tool to help realize the larger picture.
There is a much larger vision for the Haptic Guide project than most people might realize.  The primary focus on the blogs has been around the belt, which is a critical component, but the fact is that it is the N900 gives the project its primary value.  The N900 is able to take photos and automatically encode them with geo-tags.  These photos can then be shared online or sent to friends and they can use their N900 and the Haptic Guide software to load the photo and automatically be guided in a step-by-step manner to where that photo was taken.  This provides a lot of value because you no longer need to type or talk in the location you want to go to, neither by address nor by latitude/longitude coordinates.  You just need a photo of the location and the software breaks down the current and target locations into turn by turn directions just like you would find on a commercial GPS navigator.  This is where belt comes into play; it eliminates the need to constantly watch the screen or listen for directions.  Now you can have the phone in the holder or your pocket and be walking down the street and subconsciously following the vibrations in the belt without any distraction whatsoever from the environment around you.  It is the perfect touring device.

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

Going forward, we plan to develop other devices similar to the belt design so there is more than one option of a wearable device.  Such things might include a wristband or armband, a watch with lights to indicate the direction, hats, etc.  Also, we might look into the possibility of setting up an online geo-coded photo sharing service so you can plan a tour of locations you are visiting.  Take a picture of a landmark, post it on the service, and people in the area can find the photo and go to that location if they choose to.

>What do you think of the other winners?

The other winners of the competition have been great.  There is a very interesting mix of people across the teams, from geeks to artists.  Also, the teams have been great as far as sharing information.  For example, when [Tim] was getting started with the application development, Introcept from the Lighthack Crew was happy to share the details of his Bluetooth implementation which gave [Tim] what he needed to get the ball rolling.

>Questions from our commentators.

>What are your thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

There is no denying that the Arduino is a great learning and prototyping tool.  For our prototypes, we are using the Arduino Mini Pro.  We chose this because of the size constraints, outputs and processing power we might need.  In a production environment, we would use an appropriate chip and design the circuits directly.  But ultimately, this is just a prototype and the Arduino works great for it.

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

At first, working with the N900 was like diving into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim.  But this was largely because [Tim] had never worked with any of the N900/Linux development tools before.  Anyone familiar with C, C++, or Python coding in a Linux environment would likely have no problem at all with creating applications for it.  The development tools are very compatible.  In many cases, all it takes to get a desktop GTK application working on the phone at its absolute most basic, is to recompile the source code using the Scratchbox compiler and copy the files to the phone.

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

Open source software is almost always a step in the right direction.  The real value of the Maemo environment is that the open source tools allow you to simply copy a Python script, for example, from one platform to another and it will just work.  [Tim] has considered Android development for the future, but will likely stick to the N900 because of its open platform.

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

We are currently using a small 2000 mAh Lithium Polymer battery to power the haptic belt.  Because of the motor selection we chose to use, the belt gets pretty good battery life: around 12 hours of constant use.

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

For our prototypes, we chose to use mostly standard modular parts, most of which can be purchased at sparkfun.com.  Each belt has the following major parts:
1 x  Arduino Pro Mini (3.3V)
1 x  BlueSmirf Gold Module
1 x  HMC6352 Compass Module
8 x  Vibration Motor
1 x  Polymer Lithium Ion Battery – 2000 mAh
A double layer leather belt
One Nokia N900 (optional.  Without it, the belt acts like a regular compass always pointing to magnetic north)
BlinkM I2C LEDs (optional)

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)
>How often do you change your underwear?

Because there are so many possible amusing answers, we will decline to answer and see what the other teams say.

Thank you again!

But have no fear, we have fixed the problem and now you can send in your guesses. To remedy the situation we have decided to extend the competition until 10AM PST Monday the 1st of February, 2010. We will announce the winner (so long as nothing else fails) Monday afternoon. So what are you doing here still reading? Time is wasting – go win some tickets!

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

Todays team interview is KAPing with the N900. They’re N900 hack is the high flying Kite Aerial Photography. Check out what they have to say after the break. And be sure to keep up on their blog – they’ve released their first test video just a few days ago.

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

Hi there, I’m [Ricardo Mendonça Ferreira], from the “KAPing with the N900″
project.

First of all, I’m a big fan of Hack-a-Day (even if I was not able to
read it for quite some time), so I’m happy to answer your questions.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

My other teammate is my wife. Lot’s of fun stories, but none related to
this project (yet). :)

Hmm… on second thought, here’s one: my wife’s stepfather was helping
us out when we were filming for the project. I asked him to assemble our
largest kite (a Maxi-Dopero, a bit larger than 4m x 2m) in the
background while I was giving an interview. We couldn’t stop laughing
when we saw the footage: he appeared scratching his had all the time, as
if he had no idea of what he was doing! Because, in fact, he didn’t! :D

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

We have never worked on anything like this before. We never had or used
an N900 or Arduino before this project.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

I’ve been practicing KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) since 2005, and I
always wanted a powerful yet simple to use KAP controller, so my
inspiration was my necessity. I already had planned to use an N900 for
this even before the launch of the Push N900 project. When I found out
about it, I did a bit of research and just submitted our project.

>How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

I hope more people will get to know about KAP, the N900, and use our
software and guidelines to develop their own KAP systems.

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

This project is addictive! :) So the answer is yes, I plan to keep
updating my system and also develop other hardware and software
solutions for the N900.

>What do you think of the other winners?

They all have great and interesting projects, each one tackling
different problems and facing different challenges. I’m looking forward
to meet them and their creations in London!

>Questions from our commentators.
>
>What are you thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

I never used one before, but decided to use an Arduino Duemilanove after
reading the “PUSH N900 Hacker’s guide”. It will control two servo motors
with commands received from the N900 via Bluetooth.

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

Awesome! It’s like programming a desktop system. Since I’m a software
engineer with Unix experience, I felt at home with the device right from
the start.

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

I’m a big fan of both Nokia and Google for this. You can feel you really
“own” your device if it has one of these systems.

I always admired both Maemo and Android, but when I was looking for my
next gadget, I elected the N900 because Maemo seemed more mature and
with much better support for applications written in C / compiled into
native code. Of course, this opens more opportunities for processor
intensive applications than Android’s Dalvik Java virtual machine.

(Obs.: I know you can write native code for the Android, but AFAIK, it’s
not as simple as is on the Maemo, which supports it on the official SDK.)

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

This will depend *a lot* on the settings and how the system is used, but
my guess is that both motors and phone batteries will be good for
sessions longer than an hour. This is usually more than sufficient for a
good KAP session.

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

Here’s my ingredients list:
- two N900 devices
- one Arduino Duemilanove
- one BlueSMiRF Gold Bluetooth modem
- two servo motors
- one Picavet suspension
- one rig to hold the motors and one N900
- one Rokkaku kite
- one pair of gloves
- one winder
- a lot of line

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)
>How often do you change your underwear?

Please see my answer below. Should take just a couple of seconds for
some people do understand what this really is. ;)

  ''=~('(?{'.('`'|'%').('['^'-').('`'|'!').('`'|',').'"'.(
  '['^'+').('['^')').('`'|')').('`'|'.').('['^'/').(('{')^
  '[').'\\"\\\\'.('`'|'.').('`'^'!').('`'|'.').('`'|'$').(
  '{'^'[').('['^',').('`'|'(').('['^'"').('{'^'[').(('`')|
  '$').('`'|'/').('{'^'[').('['^'"').('`'|'/').('['^'.').(
  '{'^'[').('['^',').('`'|'!').('`'|'.').('['^'/').(('{')^
     '[').('['^'/').('`'|'/').('{'^'[').('`'|'+').('`'|
        '.').('`'|'/').('['^',').'?\\\\'.('`'|"\.").
           '\\\\'.('`'|'.').'\\";"})');$:='.'^'~'
             ;$~='@'|'(';$^=')'^'[';$/='`'|'.';
               $,='('^'}';$\='`'|'!';$:="\)"^
                 '}';$~='*'|'`';$^='+'^'_';
                  $/='&'|'@';$,='['&'~';$\
                   =','^'|';$:='.'^'~';$~
                    ='@'|'(';$^=')'^'[';
                     $/='`'|'.';$,='('^
                      '}';$\='`'|"\!";
                       $:=')'^'}';$~=
                       '*'|'`';$^='+'
                        ^'_';$/='&'|
                        '@';$,="\[";

Thank you!