Last Friday, Friday we caught wind of [gvillenave]’s running accessory inspired by Rebecca Black, and we we we so excited, we so excited to bring this to you on Saturday, which comes after Friday.
[gvillenave] came up with the idea of using a song on the annoyance level of “Friday” to encourage a runner into keeping up a good pace. The concept is simple: if the wearer is running fast, the song will speed up. If the wearer is slowing down, the song will slow down and extend the agony.
The build uses an Arduino and [ladyada]’s wave shield coupled to an accelerometer. [gvillenave] included the code, and also wired up some LEDs to a pair of sunglasses that blink more often as the runner’s speed increases. The wave shield has a 3.5mm jack for headphones, but [gvillenave] graciously wired a speaker in, “so that you can annoy people around you, and not just yourself.” All this is packaged in a very nice 3D printed enclosure making for a great looking project.
There’s no word on the effectiveness of the negative reinforcement aspect of [gvillenave]’s build, but we suspect it will help her get down to the bus stop a little faster every morning.
Erm… what’s with all the word repeating?
roflcopters.
lulwut?
Wooosh!
This is both timely *and* timeless.
Ah, I would have made it a bit different.
If you’re running faster than 6.5 MPH or so, have it not play. If you slow down, it plays.
This is pure genius.
Or maybe have volume tied to speed, the slower you go the louder it gets and vice versa
wat
@grenadier – yes, what?
watt
Hmm. Maybe a better motivator would be to use volume? For instance, using merzbow – pulse demon and play at full power when standing still, but decrease the volume at zero when at speed.
Warning, this “music” is “spectrally challenging”. Decrease your volume to low when attempting to play this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlGh_okr5nI
Hmm. Maybe a better motivator would be to use volume? For instance, using merzbow – pulse demon and play at full power when standing still, but decrease the volume at zero when at speed.
Warning, this “music” is “spectrally challenging”. Decrease your volume to almost nothing when attempting to play this! I wanted to paste the link to youtube, but hack a day has the habit to directly showing the youtube widget on the site.
This looks fun fun fun fun fun fun..
no video? while there may be a video, i’m not digging through an instructable to find it. I would play a loop from Black eyed peas – let’s get retarded/it started. where it’s like “runnin”, runnin'”
Because gvillenave’s project isn’t something for me I hesitate to say anything remotely critical. Hopefully she can increase her skills set, to be able reduce the size. I have carried lunch boxes int the oil fields that where smaller than that enclosure resting on her hip.
The hack was almost as lame as this post.
I can’t believe Hack-a-Day is promoting cyber-bullying…
Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun
@Ivan: They aren’t. I’ve seen some of the things people have written about her song, and indeed some of them are appallingly mean-spirited. That said, this is just making fun of the song itself in a relatively gentle way; just because some people have gone way too far doesn’t mean that /this/ constitutes “cyber-bullying”.
OMG!! ORSUM!
Oh c’mon! this is screaming out for a twitter interface and remote monitoring on an ipad!!
And some said nothing good will ever come of the ‘duino… nuf sed.
Cyber bullying? You have got to be kidding me. I guess for you if someone behind you beeps their horn at you to go, that is road rage. Take your malnourished ego somewhere else.
And for your information, people with projects who are superhuman get rankled by people who do not know how to eat their own lunches without choking. That is the Internet at both its finest and worst, and if you can not run with the other dogs, stay under the porch where you belong.
My only real two beefs with this project are the size, and if this person is willing to run with a box like that, I would call it added exercise, and the speakers which would subject the innocent bystander to your own punishments. Switch it to headphones, and why not try dumb bells instead of the big box? Either way, this is a project that hopefully the user thinks does it’s job and tip of the hat to you for doing it.
Love this hack. Very neat idea, especially the attached speakers that encourage everyone around you to run. Social responsibility FTW!