Whirlwind Papercraft Passive Amplifier
We’ve seen papercraft passive amplifiers before, but the Whirlwind from instructables member urant folds away flat so you can stick it into your pocket. [via Life Hacker]
Computers & Mobile
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Snakes on a Game
“Enough is enough! I have had it with these blankety-blank snakes on this blankety-blank, um…ARM…Cortex-M0, ah, microcontroller.”
Right, so, apologies are now due to hardworking Hack a Day writer Mike Szczys for reducing his latest tasty MCU project to a perfunctory SamJack joke. In point of fact…
Glove Based Sign-to-Speech System
The EnableTalk system uses a glove-mounted microcontroller to collate information from a passel of onboard sensors—11 flex sensors, 8 touch sensors, 2 accelerometers, a compass, and a gyroscope—and transmit it wirelessly to a nearby computer or smartphone for translation into machine generated speech.
AudioPail Portable iPhone Speakers in a Lunch Box
If you’re looking for a nice portable speaker for your iPhone or iPod Touch and are into the retro look of an old lunch box, then you’ll dig AudioPail, a portable speaker solution from Eureka Springs, Arkansas maker Brian Wood.
iTurntable Digital Music Dock
These days there are plenty of tactile input options for the digital DJ that try to recreate the traditional UI. Most of these are newer devices are vestigial rotary encoders tacked onto purpose-built decks. If you’re not a DJ, but would like to recreate the tactile experience of an old phonograph with your digital music device, check out this charming iTurntable iPhone dock from maker Austin Yang.
KINECTing to the Future
Video of my science fair project. Is it possible to control a robotic device using only human gestures? Using the Microsoft Kinect Software Developer Kit in conjunction with the Visual Basic and Arduino programming languages, it has proven to be possible.
New in the Maker Shed: NFC Shield and Tags
This NFC Shield for Arduino (available in the Maker Shed) is a great way to experiment with NFC. What’s NFC you ask? It’s an extension of RFID with a purposefully decreased range, making it great for projects where security is a consideration.