Voice controlled smartphone robot
Looks like the folks over at cellbots.com have been keeping busy. The truckbot has been souped-up with neon green acrylic and voice commands. This project just keeps getting better with age.
Computers & Mobile
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Tactile gaming vest lets you feel the pew pew pew
Roboticist Saurabh Palan, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, just hipped us to his “Tactile Gaming Vest” project. The vest contains solenoids, rumble-packs, and Peltier heating elements, and is designed to provide haptic feedback in first-person shooters. Get shot with a pistol, get a kick in the chest from a solenoid. Was it a laser? Add some local heat from the Peltiers. Vibration from the rumble-packs can be used to simulate explosions or slashing attacks. There’s more info at Palan’s personal site, iRoboticist.com. Double win for scoring that URL.
iTunes 9.1 supports “books”
Hot off the press iTunes 9.1 (not in software updates) but a download on Apple’s site – it now supports “books” since the iPads are making their way around the globe. I have a Kindle and I like it, but I might go iPad if I can’t search text on all the “Kindle” apps (Mac, […]
Floppy disk ceramic tiles
Found these ceramic tiles in the shape of floppy disks at the site of Australian design firm ENESS, who made a pretty cool game of augmented-reality Pong played on a whiteboard awhile back, and, I believe, are also responsible for making these. There’s no info about how it was done, however, and the post is titled “5 1/4 inch,” in spite of the fact that these are clearly 3 1/2 inch floppies. Cool idea, though. Anyone have more info?
In the Makers Market: “P8tch” redirectable QR code patch
When you buy a p8tch, you get a velcro-backed waterproof patch, in one of several cool designs, bearing a unique QR code. You also get a unique password that lets you log in to the system’s website at p8t.ch and specify what URL you want your patch to redirect to. You can stick it on anything and direct folks who scan it wherever you want, and when you want to use it for something else, instead of having to generate a whole new code, you can just change the re-direct URL online. A clever product concept and an awesome inexpensive gift.
Free promotional plastic resin sampler puzzle
I don’t often blog promotional giveaways, but this one is pretty sweet: Minnesota’s Proto Labs offers injection molding in a bunch of different plastics. The really cool part is, if you’re in North America and you register at their site, they’ll send you a free 4x4x4 unit polycube puzzle, with nine pieces, each molded in a different color and from a different polymer resin. There’s green HDPE, white polypropylene, mauve ABS, clear polycarbonate, yellow polycarbonate/ABS blend, orange polyoxymethylene, red polyester, blue nylon, and black glass-filled nylon. And purple horseshoes! I already snagged mine!
Using Flash to control a Peggy 2 LED board
Leonard Souza wanted to control a large LED panel using flash, so he cooked up a solution using a Java UDP client, which then relays the data over a serial port to an Arduino, which finally transmits the data over SPI to the Peggy.