Author: Caleb Kraft

1567 Articles

CES: Parrot’s AR Drone

January 7, 2010 by 14 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfzwyREcz-s]

We hadn’t been here long when we stumbled upon the Drone tent. The AR Drone is a wifi controlled quadcopter that has been making waves recently. We actually got to play with one a little bit. Well, sort of. There was too much interference inside for us to fly it manually, but we did smack it around a little bit while they told us about it. It was amazingly steady and strong while it tracked a target around the tent. Check back later for more videos and details.

Pong, For Real

January 6, 2010 by 22 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5mjx1iYt5g]

Over at EvilMadScientistLaboratories.com they’ve asked a question that many of us have never thought to ask. What exactly is Pong supposed to be? Instead of assuming it was ping pong like the rest of us, they decided to build a literal physical  interpretation. They may have taken some liberty, using solenoids as the paddles, but the end effect is quite nice. Watching them play actually looks both challenging and fun. There’s a great writeup about the construction, so be sure to check out the project page.

CES Update: January 5, 2010

January 5, 2010 by 29 Comments

As you already know, we’ll be attending CES this year. We’re still looking for ideas on what you, our loyal readers, want to see. We’ve gotten some good feedback, and came up with some ideas of our own. Keep sending in your ideas. Remember, it doesn’t even have to do with CES. Are there any hacker groups in Vegas that we could meet with? Any locations of interest? Let us know.

So far, we have the following requests:

  • Google Nexus
  • Notion Ink tablet w/Pixel-Qi display
  • Instinct Engineering – Suitcase XBOX 360, Fold out gaming couch
  • Car that can drive itself (most likely Toyota or Honda)
  • PSP 4000
  • Transparent OLED display from Samsung
  • Neuro/EEG Devices; Neurosky Booth

TOBI The Tool Bot

January 4, 2010 by 10 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChmDJ7RSZYE]

[TheGrue] has put together this great writeup on how he built TOBI, the tool carrying robot. Inspired by a story he read about a robot that could follow people around, using heat sensors, he decided he wanted to do something similar. His robot would carry his tools, in this case, the tools of an IT professional. Not only would it carry his tools, but surely it would give him credit as a techno-guru to have a scratch built robot following him around.

His build process is documented quite well. He approached this in a fashion where he set several iterations. Each step would add a feature and carry the old features forward. It looks as if he’s currently working on step 3, which means that the chassis has already been built, the drive train is working, it can be remote controlled, and now has some level of autonomy thanks to a propeller controller. Up next are some range finders and an assortment of other sensors so that TOBI won’t drive off any steps, or into any walls.

[via hackedgadgets]

TF2 Kill Counter, Binary Style

December 30, 2009 by 27 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Pft-GPQWU]

After getting some fun new toys for Christmas, [IceColdFreezie] set up this kill counter for Team Fortress 2. At first glance, we weren’t that impressed. It’s an Arduino and a few LEDs. Then we saw that it was counting the kills in binary. We’re not sure if it gets much geekier than that. You can download the source code and try it out yourself. Just don’t make more than 31 kills.

[via littlebirdceo]

Ikea Dioder Hack

December 29, 2009 by 12 Comments

[Joseph] wrote in to tell us about his Ikea Dioder hack. The Dioder is a lighting system with a silly name from Ikea. It is basically 4 RGB LED bars that are connected to a controller that will cycle their colors in different manners. They aren’t individually addressable, and at $50 aren’t really that great of a deal for people who could build their own. [Joseph] thought that maybe, if the features could be extended, it could be a decent lighting system. He bought it and began searching. Disappointed by the lack of hacks available, he cracked it open and began brainstorming. Ultimately, he decided to interface it with his computer. He can now control it with software, so making an ambilight clone shouldn’t be too difficult.

He does mention that he thought of making 4 independent drivers so that each light bar could be a different color. We agree that this would be the next logical step, possibly even rewiring for individual access to each LED.