High-fiving with the Arduino Yún

Shaking hands. We all do it, right? Well, not if Andrew Maxwell-Parish has anything to say about it.

“Handshakes just make me feel dirty,” he wrote in a recent Instructables post.

“It’s too impersonal. It’s a gesture with no soul and reeks of a corporate entity.”

As Yahoo’s Henry Baker notes, that is exactly why Maxwell-Parish created the high-five camera, a device that automatically films a short clip every time he slaps palms with someone.

“There are two pieces of technology behind the contraption: a GoPro camera and an [Atmel-based] Arduino Yún (ATmega32u4) that tells the camera when to record and stop,” Baker explained.

“With the high-five camera mounted on his helmet, Maxwell-Parish put it into action. Whether riding by on a bike or working behind a counter, strangers young and old are quick to exchange a high-five with Maxwell-Parish.”

Andrew, who is a University of Minnesota graduate, described the camera as “another ridiculous contraption” that will hopefully extend an appreciation of the mighty high five.

“The quickest and most universal gesture for telling someone ‘you are awesome,'” he added.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Atmel-powered Yún has been used in a wide variety of Maker projects that we’ve recently covered, including an electricity monitor, mesh extender platform, Foursquare soap bubble machine, a Gmail (alert) lamp and water heater regulator.