The Pulse Sensor Kit (MAKE Volume 29) is assembled by us. Fans of Frederick Taylor’s “time and motion studies” will enjoy this time-lapse video of our assembling about 800 kits to go out into the world.
Two Make: Projects teach the Tiny Wanderer robot (from MAKE Volume 29) new tricks: Bump sensor navigation and light-avoiding “Moth” behavior.
Drinking our tea in cozy confidence, we plugged the production samples into Arduino, put the unit on our fingertip, and casually looked at the screen for the Processing sketch to perfectly render our heartbeat. [Cue first spit-take.]
To complement his ReMaking History column in MAKE Volume 29, Bill Gurstelle shows you how to make a tuning fork with some simple tools and a strip of aluminum.
We have the technology (to quote The Six Million Dollar Man), but commercial tools for exploring, assisting, and augmenting our bodies really can approach a price tag of $6 million. Medical and assistive tech manufacturers must pay not just for R&D, but for expensive clinical trials, regulatory compliance, and liability — and doesn’t help with low pricing that these devices are typically paid for through insurance, rather than purchased directly. But many gadgets that restore people’s abilities or enable new “superpowers” are surprisingly easy to make, and for tiny fractions of the costs of off-the-shelf equivalents. MAKE 29, the “DIY Superhuman” issue, explains how.
In this episode of Becky’s Workshop, learn to make a headband that glows with your heart beat. First construct a stretchy headband from brocade and grosgrain ribbon, then embed the circuit boards and clip the sensor to your ear.
If you read MAKE or visit Makezine regularly, you likely know William Gurstelle. He is our resident trebuchet enthusiast and the author of several high-octane how-to books, including Backyard Ballistics, Whoosh Boom Splat, The Art of the Catapult, Absinthe and Flamethrowers, and The Practical Pyromaniac. In MAKE Volume 28, Bill wrote an article on making a Gravity Catapult…
