New Wearable Electronics Platform – FLORA
I’m really excited about this new sewable Arduino compatible board called the FLORA.
Technology
Detecting Dirty Dishes with OpenCV
What happens in a shared space like a hackerspace, where you could have as many as fifty people passing through the communal kitchen in a given day? All those cups start to pile up quickly, I’m sure. Not one to let things get out of hand, London Hackspace member Tom created a solution to combat the problem. True to hackerspace form, he combined different open source technologies to alert the members in the space when a dish has been left in the sink for more than a few minutes.
New in the Maker Shed: Digit Shield
Need a simple, low cost way to display digits using your Arduino? Look no further than the Digit Shield now available in the Maker Shed! This easy to assemble shield uses a bright green 4 digit, 7 segment display to give you the data you need.
NXT-Based Brick Sorting Robot
This monster Lego sorting robot, built by Kenneth and Lasse of BrickIt, organizes bricks by size as well as color. It uses 28 motors, 7 NXT microcontroller bricks, 7 muxes, 22 sensors, and 37,500 Lego elements total. The NXT bricks communicate with each other via bluetooth and are programmed in leJOS, a Java-based firmware replacement […]
DIY Assassin’s Creed Arm Blade Prop
Prop building is engrained in Maker culture. Motion picture special effects, steampunk finery, live action role playing games, cosplay, historical reenactments, and the theater all rely on props to help tell the story. For the enthusiast, building a prop is a great way to channel enthusiasm for a particular subject and expand the user experience. The research and attention to detail poured into some prop building projects can even surpass the original inspiration in form and function.
Ask MAKE: Beginning Electronics and Dog Transponder Dreams
Tony asks:
I am really interested in learning about electronics and how to make kits and potentially make things with my kids. However, I am more creative than technical and I was wondering where would be a good book/kit/guide to start with. I am not an engineer and I don’t know anything about circuits, semiconductors or arduino. My dream would to be able to make a gadget i could put on my dog’s leash and it would transmit signals via gps/3g as to where he was if he ran away (which he manages to a lot).
Kinect-Controlled Skateboard
This longboard features a tablet computer, Kinect, and 800-watt electric motor, and reaches a max speed of 32 MPH. Chaotic Moon Labs’ “Board of Awesomeness” is intended as a technology teaser to show how perceptive computing can turn around the way we look at user experiences. The project utilizes a Microsoft Kinect device, Samsung Windows […]