Here’s how to make a serial cable to control a Roomba with your Mac/PC. iRobot Roomba manufactured after October 2005 contain an electronic and software interface that allows you to control or modify Roomba’s behavior and remotely monitor its sensors. This interface is called the Roomba Serial Control Interface or Roomba SCI. When you’re done […]
I asked Terry about the Flowbench he made, here’s what he said – “My flowbench started because I wanted to modify my car’s engine by porting the heads. I don’t know how familiar you are with engines, but “Porting the head” means modify the cylinder head so that more air will flow thru them and into the cylinder. Horsepower is directly proportional to airflow, i.e. 10% more air equals 10% more power. But I knew that just making the ports larger doesn’t mean more for airflow.”
This week at Treehugger, tune in, turn on, hug it out…Toys made from trash. Make your own eco-travel plans. And, we find upcycled art in our archives.Build a homemade digital camera. A backyard hydrogen station project in Florida.
uBrowser is an simple Web Browser that illustrates one way of embedding the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine into a standalone application using LibXUL. In this case, the contents of the page is grabbed as it’s being rendered and displayed as a texture on some geometry using OpenGL. You are able to interact with the page (mostly) normally and visit (almost) any site that works correctly with Firefox 1.5. Translation: Expect to see browser like Firefox in every virtual world really soon. [via] Link. I took a few screenshots, check’em out!
As fashion week is underway in NY, a new generation of fashion technologists emerged last week at the “Seamless: Computational Couture” fashion show in Boston. The show featured the works by the students of MIT, RISD, Parsons, and NYU. Where else can you find a scarf that hugs you back (taptap), a space dress, and the blogger hoodie? I got a chance to talk to the show’s producers for an exclusive recap of the event and their take on technology’s future in fashion.
On page 112 of MAKE Volume 05 (“How to Build a Power Tap”), we ran an illustration that could cause some confusion as well as a tripped circuit breaker. The illustration does not match the instructions (which are correct). The illustration shows a dual plug receptacle, which, when wired improperly, can cause a short circuit. If you attach the wires from the extension cord to the screws on the same side of the receptacle, it will create a short circuit. Don’t do that. Instead, follow the instructions and attach a wire to “each side of the electrical outlet.”
Sony isn’t tops in many areas any longer, but they were one of the best in robot dogs and humanoid robot companion development. Now it seems those are going to get the axe (maybe they’d open source ’em? Good will and all?!)… “Continuing the restructuring in its electronics business, the company said it would end its Aibo robot line, stop development of its Qrio robot, stop development and manufacturing of plasma televisions, and stop selling in-car entertainment products in Japan. It will also kill its Qualia line of pricey, high-specification products.” [via] Link. Here are photos of some good times and memories with AIBOs and QRIOs. We will miss you guys.
