This project explores the invisible terrain of WiFi networks in urban spaces by light painting signal strength in long-exposure photographs. A four-metre tall measuring rod with 80 points of light reveals cross-sections through WiFi networks using a photographic technique called light-painting. While we were mapping out tiny RFID fields, we wondered what it would be […]
Allerta Lead Designer Eric Migicovsky just released the code to his Facebook Places check-in app for the inPulse smartwatch. This simple app communicates over Bluetooth to an Android smartphone, which in turn interacts with Facebook Places. Without reaching for his smartphone, Eric can easily check in to his Facebook Places account using an easy to navigate one button interface.
Here’s a fairly radical way to motivate yourself to learn Morse, from Australian Ben Buxton. Got to agree with tipster Alan Dove, who described the build as, “a project involving Arduino programming, a mint tin, a USB interface, and International Morse Code, resulting in unassailable geek cred.” The USB key interface is built into a mint tin and provides a dual input port for a standard USB keyboard to access non-Morse characters. A numeric display on the tin displays your coding speed, and tapping out “SOS” without letter spaces brings up the settings menu. Software, schematics, and build notes at Ben’s site. [Thanks, Alan!]
The multitude of cheap plastic cup holder smartphone mounts is staggering, yet the majority of them are either overly engineered, cheap flimsy plastic or proprietary. I’m surprised that we don’t see more commercial designs similar to the stand in this video by the Mechanical Mashup crew. Heck, there’s even room to coil up a loose power cable inside the cup.
To teach children about complexity theory, a group from Indiana University created an electronic game called BeeSim using LilyPad Arduinos and XBee radios: During the game children wear a Bee puppet wrist band with embedded electronics to allow for game play. The children have a finite amount of time (45 seconds) to collect and deposit […]
The NXTBee from dexter industries lets you connect to multiple NXTs and other devices using standard XBee radios. Now your NXT can talk to another NXT or an entire swarm.
Wireless technology has transformed many aspects of our world, but it wasn’t until now that it has had an impact on falling dominoes. In this project by Jarashi Suki and the IAMAS Ubiquitous Interaction Research Group, each electronic domino is assigned a number and after it topples, it will wirelessly trigger the next numbered domino […]
