First Hovering Ornithopter NAV

July 1, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 24 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cov7-XWUa18&w=470]

DARPA has awarded an extension to AeroVironment for their work on the Nano Air Vehicle project. The prototype seen above, called Mercury, is an ornithopter which means it flaps it’s wings. It is the first to show controlled hovering. Look closely, there’s no rudder or tail. Mercury uses the two wings for both lift and control. Ornithopters themselves aren’t new, we’ve even covered them before. Usually they use the flapping wings for propulson and a tail to steer as they travel like an airplane. We would really love to see some detail shots of Mercury.

[via slashdot]

The Snow Clock

July 1, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 20 Comments

Snow days are great, but generally you still have to wake up to find out if it is a snow day. [insingertech] decided to make a system to solve this problem. He made an alarm clock that would automatically de activate if school is cancelled. What a pleasant surprise it would be to just wake up and find that you had been allowed to sleep in. It is using an Arduino and a python script to control the state of the alarm based off of an online school closing announcement. You can download the software from the instructable.

Massive LED Screen Project

June 30, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 29 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nILHGU1qJzY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.basicmicro.com%2F&feature=player_embedded]

The folks over at basicmicro.com are working on a massive LED display. They currently have one 32×32 RGB panel working. It displays 50 fps at 140 hz but the one above is only running at about 24 fps. The final display will be 40 of these panels. This thing is going to be massive. We have to wonder how this compares, financially and performance wise, to the commercial signage that displays videos.

Simplest Macro Hack Ever

June 30, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 22 Comments

macro

This quick little hack is beautiful in its simplicity. Need a macro lens to play with? Simply rip the lens out of a pair of binoculars and tape it to the end of your slr lens. The result is pretty good. If you need something a little higher quality, you could always hack an extra AF lens.

Barbie’s Web Rover

June 29, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrb58Pcuos0]

[Hunter, Kyle, and Dylan] sent us some information on their Barbie Web Rover. It’s an old barbie power wheels jeep that’s been converted to a web enabled remote control car. They ripped out the old drive train and tore out the steering system. The rear tires are now independently driven for steering. It’s using an Arduino to control the motors and an Acer Aspire loaded with linux for the higher functions. It’s cool that they mention the farthest test being over 1600 miles away, but when it’s web enabled, does distance really matter?

They mention that the coolness factor is proportionate to the size and we have to agree, as long as they keep it small enough to not cause any real damage. You can build a web enabled rover with a little more effort from just a router, if you don’t want to give up your laptop.

D-touch Tangible Drum Interface

June 29, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmGP3eCOF5A]

yes, drums are tangible. We know. What this is, however, is a tangible interface that is a drum machine. The software is freely available for download, after registration. For hardware, all you need is a webcam, a computer, and a way to print out the pieces. D-Touch is cross platform which is very nice. Please note that the software will not run until you activate it by putting in your user account from their site. If you like this project, you might also get a kick out of the Go Sequencer.

Wii Balance Board

June 28, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4UciZLl2Hk]

[Matt Cutts], head developer for google’s anti spam team, describes how to attach a Wii balance board to a linux computer. He even shows how to make a GUI to show the input. The entire project is done in about 200 lines of python.The process assumes that you can already make a bluetooth connection to a WiiMote, but if you can’t, he’s got instructions for that too.

[via hackawii]