Well-balanced Flight Simulator

November 18, 2010 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

Here’s a flight simulator which uses concepts simple enough for anyone to build. As you pilot your virtual craft, the cockpit you’re sitting in moves as well. But unlike some of the more extreme simulator builds we’ve seen, this uses basic materials and simple concepts to provide that motion. Its center of gravity is balanced on a base frame. The joystick slides as you move the nose of the craft up and down, shifting the center of gravity causing the cockpit to tilt as well. The pilot sees the simulated flight through a wearable display. There is a stationary reference in front of him which allows the system to measure head movements, panning and tilting the virtual display to match. Check out the overview video after the break, or click through to the page linked above and watch all 22 episodes of the video build log.

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DTG: Improved Printing On T-shirts

November 16, 2010 by Mike Szczys 21 Comments

[Jeff German] improved upon his DIY direct to garment printer an ended up with a machine he thinks is equivalent to anything you can buy commercially. We last looked in on this project in June but much has been done since then. Most notably, there are build instructions available (requires login). [Jeff’s] printer is based around an Epson R1900 plus the base that holds and feed a garment. Take a look after the break to see it printing full color designs in high resolution. From the YouTube description it sounds like he wants to go into production with this. Kudos to him for also sharing the build techniques.

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Mechanical Mustache Envy

October 31, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 8 Comments

While this mechanical mustache isn’t made for a Halloween costume, it certainly looks like part of one. Copper clad, brass, cable, and a few other bits come together in a similar style to tension based hands; the piece is then worn much like a Mardi Gras mask. To complete the rustic “old tyme” look [John] was after, the copper was tarnished using the vapor from a vinegar and salt solution. The finished assembly is steam punk delicious, but we’re saddened by the lack of steam punk eye brows to complete the look (or steam punk mutton chops, or steam punk goatee, or…)

[via Boing Boing]

Assassin’s Creed Blades Make Us Wince

October 14, 2010 by Mike Szczys 109 Comments

[TheBserk] made himself a set of auto-locking and auto-retracting hidden blades inspired by those in the game Assassin’s Creed. As you can see in the demo (and build guides) after the break, they work really well. We don’t like the idea of sharpened metal ramming its way past our wrists. But it’s not the first time we’ve seen dangerous arm-mounted hacks.

Reminiscent of Taxi Driver, [TheBserk] uses drawer slides from the local home store for his build. They are cut to length, and modified using springs for the automatic action. There is a lock to keep the blade extended, and a pull-wire to actuate it. Although dangerous, the build is well done. We think someone has mechanical engineering in his future, and possibly a trip to the emergency room.

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Human Theremin, One Step Closer To Cyborgs (not Really)

October 10, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 5 Comments

Oh [Humberto], what will you think up next? A human Theremin you say, and it’s for Halloween? Certanly this will blow last years creepy capacitance sensing jack-o-lantern out of the water right? Eh, not really, but still cool none-the-less. By using pairs of IR LEDs and IR photo-transistors, [Humberto] makes a simplistic distance sensor. Then its just a matter of converting that light value into sound, which is accomplished by using some very clever PWM square wave hacking to make a triangle wave. Also, [Humberto] goes over the process of using fast integers to represent slow floating point numbers. While none of the project is really a new concept, it certainly is put into an easy perspective so anyone can try their hand at it. All well worth the read, or you can catch a video after the jump.

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From Sign Language To Spoken Language

October 4, 2010 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

As part of a senior design project for a biomedical engineering class [Kendall Lowrey] worked in a team to develop a device that translates American Sign Language into spoken English. Wanting to eclipse glove-based devices that came before them, the team set out to move away from strictly spelling words, to combining sign with common gesture. The project is based around an Arduino Mega and is limited to the alphabet and about ten words because of the initial programming space restraints. When the five flex sensors and three accelerometer values register an at-rest state for two seconds the device takes a reading and looks up the most likely word or letter in a table. It then outputs that to a voicebox shield to translate the words or letters into phonetic sounds.

Dazzling Coat Sure To Be In Demand With Pimps Everywhere

September 30, 2010 by Mike Szczys 37 Comments

This is the newest addition to [Arren Parker’s] Burning Man wardrobe. The full-length lighted faux-fur coats is completely his creation. He started with a pattern that he acquired from Ebay, adding side pockets and changing the hood to a collar. From there he added the 256 RGB LEDs that make it shimmer so appealingly.

For this to work, he designed and ordered 300 tiny PCBs on which a connector socket and the LED are soldered. These are driven by a set of six TLC5940 pulse-width modulation chips, and ultimately by an Arduino. The effect is spectacular (see for yourself after the break), and we’re sure it’ll be a hit at burning man. Continue reading “Dazzling Coat Sure To Be In Demand With Pimps Everywhere” →