laser

539 Articles

Five Concept Mice Add Multi-touch Control

October 6, 2009 by 34 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLw1MXTDlAE]

Microsoft is showing off five concepts for added mouse functionality. All of them seek to replace traditional move-and-click with touch sensitivity through either capacitive sensing, video recognition, sensor articulation, or laser scanning. We’re excited about the prospects of some of these features but at the same time wonder what this does to the price of this much-abused peripheral. After the break we’ll touch on each of the devices, along with time references for the video embedded above. Continue reading “Five Concept Mice Add Multi-touch Control” →

RGB Laser

October 4, 2009 by 22 Comments

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Last month we had the pleasure of bringing you [FireMyLaser’s] green laser spirograph. Just green is great for a while, but why not add red and blue for a full spectrum of color! [c4r0] steps in at this point to bring us his red green blue laser.

(Editor’s note: the old forum doesn’t seem to exist in 2023, but the project moved here. Thanks, [Rolson]!)

He dug around inside Blu-ray players and DVD drives until he had a collection of lasers, refractors, and other filters that fit his needs. With some careful toothpick alignment and glue, his setup was complete.

But then he went further by modified his galvo scanner to accept the RGB laser; requiring a custom circuit board and new software, both available on his site. The original is in Polish, but Google does a decent translation. Check after the jump for a video.

Continue reading “RGB Laser” →

Laser Triggered Photography

September 30, 2009 by 9 Comments

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Popped balloons or bullets fired into apples, anyone can photograph with a quick sound based camera rig. Lasers have been used forever in motion detection. And even door bell chimes have been used before for remote camera shutter releases. No, [SaskView] wanted to go further and created his Laser Triggered High-Speed Photography setup, to photograph (of all things) milk splashes. We liked the simplicity of the project however;  requiring no programmed microchips or overly complicated circuitry – rather he took a quick trip to the local dollar shop, used the amazing CHDK firmware, and he produced perfect results every time.

[Update: CHDK, not CHKD firmware. My mind must be elsewhere. Thanks jbot and agent smith]

Pinch Control2: Laser Drawing

September 28, 2009 by 4 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uXIqQxarYI]

[atduskgreg] posted this cool looking rig.  That’s a batting glove, chopped up and equipped with a flex sensor and a pressure sensor. The end goal was to create a new method of drawing. You can see he’s interfaced with the servos decently. It seems fairly responsive and intuitive. Looking at his results though, make us wonder if all that effort was worth it. We would probably apply this rig to some kind of animatronics.

Wacom Light Graffiti

September 20, 2009 by 17 Comments

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[Jon] wanted to have some fun with the Graffiti Research Lab’s LASER Tag. Unfortunately his computer wasn’t quite up for the challenge of detecting the laser pointer with a webcam. Not to be discouraged by this hardware limitation, he purchased a used Wacom tablet and threw together some code to make it work with the GRL display software. Now designs can be scrawled on the pad and the projector displays them with the familiar dripping paint effect. Continue reading “Wacom Light Graffiti” →

Laser Spiro Made From Junk

September 13, 2009 by 17 Comments

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Sometimes we need someone like [FireMyLaser] to show us that you really don’t need things like custom PCB’s, expensive tools, or laser cutters to pull of a hack. His laser spiro subsists mostly of  toothpicks, hotglue, and determination. It is a two motor spiro with a base motor and a motor mounted in a  spinning cage. The cage gets power through brushes much like other projects we’ve covered. See a video of it in action after the break.
Continue reading “Laser Spiro Made From Junk” →

Sticky Light

August 4, 2009 by 25 Comments

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With the availability of webcams and projectors, multitouch and interactive demos have become increasingly popular because they’re so easy. Students at the University of Tokyo took a new approach that uses lasers instead. They created Sticky Light, which uses mirrors, a laser, and a single photodetector. Unlike camera-tracking setups, this system requires no visual processing. The laser moves around and bumps into dark objects, sticking to them. It can follow drawings on the table or objects in space, such as shirt designs. They also created a few basic games and a demo that makes sounds based on the movement of the spots. Video of the project after the break.

Continue reading “Sticky Light” →