Hardware conference badges keep getting more complex, adding features that are sometimes useful, and sometimes just cool. The Electromagnetic Field (EMF) 2014 badge, TiLDA MKe, is no exception.
This badge displays the conference schedule, which can be updated over an RF link with base stations. It even notifies you when an event you’re interested in is about to start. Since we’ve missed many a talk by losing track of the time, this seems like a very useful feature.
Beyond the schedule, the device has a dedicated torch button to turn it into a flashlight. A rather helpful feature seeing as EMF takes place outdoors, in a field of the non-electromagnetic sort. They’re also working on porting some classic games to the system.
The badge is compatible with the Arduino Due, and is powered by an ARM Cortex M3. It’s rechargeable over USB, which is a nice change from AA powered badges. It also touts a radio transceiver, joystick, accelerometer, gyroscope, speaker, infrared, and is compatible with Arduino shields.
For more technical details, you can check out the EMF wiki. EMF 2014 takes place from August 29th to the 31st in Bletchley, UK, and you can still purchase tickets to score one of these badges.
I was very much hoping to see an Atmel SAM3 variant on the DUE platform, but unfortunately, it’s the same obtrusively large SAM3X8E.
Has anyone come across any efforts to get the Arduino eco system up-and-running on other SAM3 (or 4) cores? I like to code in Atmel Studio, but the ASF can be a little daunting at times. It’s nice to hash out ideas in the user-friendly arduino domain, before committing a lot of time and effort to finalizing them; the ASF is not known for being “user-friendly”!
I thought this was an original Cybiko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybiko) at first…