Technology

Quadcopter Flying Over a Field of Yellow Mustard

Quadcopter Flying Over a Field of Yellow Mustard

There is a large field of mustard a couple miles from MAKE headquarters, and for a few weeks in spring, all the mustard blooms, and the field turns brilliant yellow. On the way home from work about a month ago, I stopped at the field, with a plan to to take some photos. As I got closer to the ideal photo spot, I came across a gentleman, documentary filmmaker Michael Heumann, flying a quadcopter. We got to chatting, and I ended up snapping some photos. Michael has a DJI Phantom Aerial UAV Drone Quadcopter with a GoPro camera mounted to it, and he showed me how he had installed some Moongel pads on the top and bottom of the camera, to absorb shock to reduce video shakiness.

Continue Reading Laura Cochrane10
Cloning the DARwin-OP

Cloning the DARwin-OP

Kansas City programmer Michael Overstreet wanted his own high-performance humanoid robot to experiment with, but was deterred by the $12,000 pricetag of an off-the-shelf DARwin-OP. Though a significant fraction of the cost is tied up in the top-of-the-line servo actuators the design requires to perform at spec, Michael believed he could build his own “clone” of the fully open-source design, at substantial savings, by 3D printing as many pieces as he could in fused filament, on home equipment.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
Choose Your Own Adventure (With a Receipt)

Choose Your Own Adventure (With a Receipt)

At Minne-Faire this year, I ran into Jerry Bjelojac who has created the Choosatron, an Arduino-powered, coin-operated choose-your-own adventure machine that prints your quest out on a thermal printer. As technology has advanced, so has the way we tell stories. The interactive fiction genre evolved so quickly from text adventures to modern gaming that creatively […]

Continue Reading John Baichtal
Designing the Electronics User Experience

Designing the Electronics User Experience

In February I did an interview with Eric Jennings, co-founder of Pinoccio. Pinoccio is a new open source hardware business, building “a complete ecosystem for the Internet of Things.” The Pinoccio is a pocket-sized microcontroller board with wireless networking, rechargeable LiPo battery, sensors, and the ability to expand its capabilities through shields, much like an Arduino board. It features the new Atmel ATmega256RFR2, a single-chip AVR 8-bit processor with low power 2.4GHz transceiver for IEEE 802.15.4 communications.

Eric Jennings, along with his partner Sally Carson, co-founded Pinoccio. In my interview with Eric he said:

“Sally Carson, Pinoccio’s other co-founder, is an expert in the intersection between humans and technology. What I mean by that is that she thinks very deeply and carefully about the psychology of humans interacting with computers. Human-computer interaction, user experience, and usability all fall under her umbrella. I consider her contribution a secret weapon in what we’re trying to achieve with Pinoccio.”

A Secret Weapon?!… I had to find out more what Eric meant, and just what exactly is Pinoccio’s Secret Weapon. I contacted Sally Carson and asked her about the intersection of User Experience (UX) with electronics and the design of the Pinoccio. Along the way, I learned some good lessons on why design is important, even to just a set of electronics.

Continue Reading Stett Holbrook3