Robot Subs Compete

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nEeVA02MM]

These Autonomous Underwater Vehicles are all competing in the 12th annual AUVSI competition. They have to complete an underwater obstacle course that involves some tight maneuvering, retrieval of a briefcase, dropping bombs, and firing torpedoes. We’ve seen several UAVs before, but we haven’t ever seen them weaponized and in action. Yeah, those weapons don’t look lethal, but isn’t that just a matter of ammunition?

Tangible Holograms

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw]

As you watch that video, you’ll probably find yourself wondering several things about the tangible hologram project. Why haven’t we seen these simple hologram setups used more often? Where did that cool air puff system come from and why haven’t we seen more on that?  When will this be integrated into the latest Xbox/PS3/Wii? We don’t know the answers to those questions, but we would really love to play with this in person to see how convincing it is.

Serial Hacking With An ATtiny2313

board

[Sprite_tm] automated a portion of serial hacking by sniffing out the baud rate using an ATtiny2313 and FT232 breakout board. The firmware assumes 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit (8N1). This is pretty much defacto among serial ports so it should work well, though some devices do use different settings. The auto detection routine can sniff rates as low as 110 baud and supports non standard rates. Released under GPLv3, the software is also supplied in hex format.  [Sprite_tm] has provided great project in past such as Working with VFDsControllable bristlebot, and AVR boost converter. Additional information regarding serial hacking after the break.

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