Artist creates interactive paintings with Bare Conductive

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This Denver-based innovator is bringing art to life with an audible, tactile and visual experience.

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Step into any gallery and you can expect to find “Do Not Touch” signs plastered everywhere. What this means is that, in most cases, the piece of art stimulates only one of the five human senses. However, a Denver-based originator has set out to change that by providing viewers with an audible, tactile and visual experience as they glance at the imagery before them.

Thomas “Detour” Evans is not your typical artist, nor has ever aspired to be. In his recent collection dubbed Art and Decibels, the 30-year-old creator has devised a series of interactive, sensor-laden paintings that are specifically meant to be touched in designated spots. By doing so, the image is magically brought to life through sound.

“This collection features the evolution of how I perceive art in the 21th century. With music as the foundation, It’s not enough for me to just use conventional methods; it’s empirical that I bring in other amazing artist of various forms to bring pieces alive,” Detour writes.

Upon first glance, Detour’s pieces appear to be meticulously crafted portraits of popular hip-hop stars, ranging from Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac to Nas and Kendrick Lamar. However, beneath the canvas of each image lies a unique combination of electronics and conductive ink. The artist has employed Bare Conductive’s Electric Paint along with a few Touch Boards (ATmega32U4) to enable each still-life to seamlessly double as an actual MIDI controller.

This gives audience members a dynamic way to interact with the painting and truly connect with the subject matter laid out on the canvas. Unlike countless other forms of wall-mounted art, Detour explains that viewers are now able to become fully immersed, both mentally and physically.

In order to bring this next-gen creations to life, Detour team up with several his close friends and veteran musicians to ensure the proper design of every painting so that they could play music and be manipulated like an instrument. This concept is something Detour has been brainstorming for years.

“In 2009 I became infatuated with figuring out how to connect the viewer with the subject on the canvas… I mulled over the idea of deconstructing and reconstructing a MIDI controller and installing it. Unfortunately the technology and the canvas didn’t mesh well. It wasn’t until I stumbled across the Bare Conductive Kickstarter that I saw some of the potential with the Touch Board. When I got the package and took the Electric Paint and Touch Board to one of my DJ/producer friends, it became the start of a long process to create these interactive paintings,” the artist revealed in his latest interview with Bare Conductive.

The creative process, which he has elaborated upon in a tutorial over on SparkFun, includes wiring the back of the canvas so that the sensors are emerging through the front in various locations. These sensors are connected to a computer and act as triggers in such a way that, when tapped, they emit a sound. Generally, every painting features around a dozen or touch points, each delivering a unique tune. Once the electronics are embedded, Detour paints his masterpiece just as he would any other portrait. Cognizant of where the sensors are located, he envisions how a particular piece needs to be manipulated — whether that’s using the outline of a milk crate as a matrix MIDI soundboard or lines on a t-shirt as a keyboard.

“I use the Touch Board in two different ways – one is the mode that is installed when it’s shipped. These pieces are usually combined with a bunch of other electronics that allows it to be a touch boom box painting with speakers,” Detour explains. “The other way is with the MIDI mode turned on and hooking it up to a computer. This way is the real ground breaker because it allows me to collaborate with friends and to have performance on each piece. It’s setup more like an instrument.”

Pretty sweet, right? Head over to Detour’s official page to learn more, as well as get started on creating a musical masterpiece of your own here.

HACKberry is an open source, 3D-printed bionic hand

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This 3D-printable bionic limb is controlled by a smartphone, powered by camera batteries and based on an Arduino. 

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If you sit back and reflect over the past couple of years, it’s truly remarkable how far the world of prosthetics has come thanks to recent advancements in 3D printing and open hardware. These artificial limbs have transcended well beyond the heavy, plastic and metal pieces of yesteryear into lightweight, sci-fi-like accessories that can be easily constructed and controlled in ways never before imagined.

Aside from providing these body-adorned gadgets with futuristic capabilities, what makes the sleek and futuristic prosthetics even more appealing are their price tags — a fraction of the cost of its older and commercial counterparts. With aspirations of accelerating development and increasing accessibility, Japan-based startup exiii has developed an open source bionic hand that is built around an Arduino Micro (ATmega32U4) and myoelectric sensors, uses a smartphone as the brains of its operation and relies upon camera batteries for power. Named HACKberry, most of the device is comprised of 3D-printed components that can be taken apart and swapped out whenever necessary.

“HACKberry is a practical model for daily use created through the cooperation of actual users. Hackberries, which are a species of trees included in the elm family, grow many branches,” exiii writes. “Our goal is to develop an artificial arm that would become the platform upon which developers and artificial arm users from all over the world are able to build as they wish.
The name represents our vision to ‘hack’ at problems, grow branches of joy that reach out to users and enable their ideas and efforts to bear fruit (‘berries’).”

While its newest model may not be ready for sale yet, the limb only took $300 to create. The latest iteration boasts a number improvements compared to its more expensive (and not open source) sibling, the Handoii, which includes a more flexible wrist for various movements, a smaller palm to make it attractive for women to wear, and enhanced compatibility to an assortment of camera batteries. Impressively, what really sets HACKberry apart is that its ductile fingers that can even differentiate between grasping and picking up based on the object, whether that’s turning the page of a magazine, grabbing some nail polish or even tying one’s shoelaces.

Want to learn more? exiii has made all of its files available on GitHub page. This includes printing and source codes for software, as well as all the data for its hand, sensor and battery boards. In the meantime, you can see HACKberry in action below!

Build your own pool and hot tub monitor with ATmega328

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SpaSitter is an open-source monitor that provides you with access to water conditions right from your smartphone.

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Lounging in the pool as you bask up some sun and sitting in the hot tub after a long day at work may enjoyable, keeping up with the maintenance of them not so much. Having grown tired of monitoring the water chemistry of his aquatic area, Instructables user “bhuebner” decided to develop an open-source device that would notify him of water conditions in real-time, all through his smartphone and a web interface.

The aptly named SpaSitter is built around an ATmega328 based Nanode (essentially an Arduino with Internet connectivity) and Xively’s easy-to-use API. Three sensors housed inside a waterproof box are connected to the Nanode and placed in the hot tub or pool to remotely measure pH, oxidation reduction potential and temperature. Once collected, this information is uploaded to Xively where the data is tracked over time and displayed in graph form.

After a little calibration and testing of its probes, the Maker configured his system to send emails and text messages to his smartphone whenever the water levels began to dip. At the moment, he still needs to put the chemicals by hand whenever attention is required, but hopes that in the future he can automate this process as well.

Want to build your own spa monitor? Check out the Maker’s step-by-step breakdown on Instructables here.

RepRapPro launches a $300 Delta 3D printer

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The Fisher Delta 3D printer is an easy-to-assemble and even easier-to-afford machine for Makers of any level.

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Safe to say that the adoption of 3D printing will rely heavily upon both affordability and accessibility to Makers. And one of the companies continuing to lead the way is RepRapPro, who has debuted yet another open source machine for the DIY community. Recently unveiled during 3D Printshow London, Fisher is an easy-to-assemble, Delta style 3D printer that is expected to cost around $300 — quite the wallet-friendly price compared to many other devices on the market today.

“In order to achieve the low price, a Delta configuration was chosen, utilizing mainly parts and processes which can be found in our other RepRap kits,” its team revels. “Although in this configuration the machine lacks a heated bed, many great features are included, such as an automatic bed probing and new compact all metal hot-end, which all combine to give the same great print quality as all our other RepRap 3D printer designs.”

One of its other notable features is RepRapPro’s Arduino-compatible, 32-bit controller. Based on an Atmel | SMART SAM3X8E Cortex-M3 MCU, the Duet board is equipped with four stepper motor controllers, an SD card slot, as well as USB and Ethernet ports. Makers can drive the platform with a conventional RepRap app like Pronterface or command the platform via a standard web server. What’s more, an expansion board offers an additional four stepper motor controllers, allowing for a total of five extruders and up to eight axis controls.

Key specs of the Fisher:

• Build volume: 150mm diameter, 180mm height
• Nozzle diameter: 0.4mm
• Resolution: 12.5um in all axes
• Print bed: Removable
• Extruder: Direct drive extruder with an all-metal stainless steel nozzle
• Connectivity: Ethernet and USB interface
• Storage: On-board microSD
• Software: Prints G-code files provided by Slic3r and other open-source slicing programs

At the moment, the design is in its beta stage, as the team gathers feedback from end users throughout the open source community. Meanwhile, upgrades are already in the works which include a heated bed and color touchscreen kits. Interested? Head over to its official page here.

Tsunami is making signal generation accessible to everyone

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The Tsunami is a powerful and flexible signal generator, analyzer and experimenter’s kit built on the Arduino platform.

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With more Makers looking to design and build their own hardware, they are often faced with a difficult choice: either spend hundreds, or even thousands for that matter, on expensive test equipment and development boards or waste time trying to make do with what they can put together on a budget. Fortunately, one London-based startup has come up with solution. The Tsunami is a signal generator and frequency counter based on the highly-popular Arduino platform.

The brainchild of Arachnid Labs, Tsunami combines a versatile signal generator and frequency counter with an ATmega32U4 MCU, thereby making it possible to create sophisticated tools with a few lines of code, or simply load and run a wide variety of pre-written sketches for common tasks. The board’s capabilities also extend well beyond what you’d expect of a typical benchtop tool. Application ideas listed include music synthesis, packet radio modems, and reading and writing classic computer tapes, among countless other educational possibilities.

With Makers in mind, its creators have put quite a bit of effort into empowering the Tsunami to be easy as possible to use, thanks to the extensive Arduino library that covers all of Tsunami’s functions. Generating a sine wave, for instance, is as simple as telling the Tsunami what frequency you want.

“With its wide appeal and easy learning curve, the Arduino IDE was an obvious choice,” explains Arachnid Labs developer Nick Johnson. “And the ATmega MCU provided a familiar environment with the widest possible compatibility with existing code.”

The Tsunami’s most straightforward functions are frequency generation and counting. The Tsunami uses a high accuracy 2.5PPM crystal, which makes it an excellent tool to generate incredibly precise frequencies, in addition to measuring them with phenomenal accuracy. For comparison, a typical “high quality” crystal is between eight and 25 times less accurate, the team reveals.

“With its highly accurate crystal, you can use the Tsunami to generate signals — sine, triangle, and square waves — all the way from DC up to around two megahertz. A versatile analog fron-tend allows you to adjust amplitude from 0V to 6V peak to peak, and DC offset by up to 2V either side of ground,” Johnson adds.

Likewise, the Tsunami can be used to measure signals. The tool is equipped with a high speed comparator tasked with capturing the frequency, a peak detector for quantifying signal amplitude, and a phase detector to detect phase, of course. Each of these facilities work up to nearly eight megahertz.

By connecting the output of the Tsunami to an analog filter or an audio amplifier, and employ the Tsunami’s input to capture what comes out, it’s even possible to measure how it responds at different frequencies. The phase detector senses the phase delay, which means a user can construct bode plots.

“That’s not all you can do with the Tsunami, though. The DDS has built-in support for phase and frequency modulation, and the Tsunami adds on support for amplitude modulation too. With just a few lines of code you can take digital data and modulate it onto an audio or RF signal at any frequency the Tsunami supports, and using the Tsunami’s input features, you can demodulate data.”

For those unfamiliar with DDS, this refers to the process of generating waveforms directly from digital data, and is commonly implemented in applications such as radio communications, test equipment, proximity and motion detection, and audio synthesizers. Unfortunately, many DDS chips come in difficult to solder packages and have complex interfaces. That was until now. Arachnid Labs has provided Makers with an on-board DDS chip and comprehensive libraries and sample applications for use familiar Arduino environment.

Recently, Arduino revealed that the board became the latest member of its growing Arduino At Heart program. At the moment, Tsunami can be found on CrowdSupply, where the team nearly doubled its original $14,785 pledge goal. The first wave of units will ship in August 2015.

Build a walking robot with credit cards and an ATmega328

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Unlike some POS terminals, this robot takes Visa, Mastercard and Discover.

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Writing for MAKE: Magazine, Jeremy Cook has revealed another way that your credit card may wander off other than pickpocketing, of course. The brainchild of Maker “Roger’s Home,” Monster Chan is a wallet-sized, AVR based robot that is actually capable of walking away on its own.

The body of the DIY device is comprised of two expired credit cards along with a set of electronic components. An ultrasonic sensor attached to a servo is employed as its head and tasked with navigating the terrain with its paperclip legs.

Between the pair of plastic pieces lie an Arduino-compatible VISduino Uno board (ATmega328) and a sensor shield serving as its brains, a battery box for its power supply, an IR sensor for remote commands and six servos.

A set of middle servos seem to handle the movement and turning of the budget-friendly robot, as it makes its way left and right and propels itself forward with the aid of its other legs.

If somehow your credit cards vanish, not to worry. Cook jokes, “It looks like it would be very hard to use in a reader.” You can see it in action below!

Musio is an AI robot designed to learn, adapt and grow with you

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Meet the Musio, an Arduino-compatible, artificially intelligent robot that evolves with you and makes your home smarter.

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If it’s up to one California-based startup, the next member of your family won’t be a baby brother or sister, nor will it be a furry four-legged animal. Instead, the AKAStudy crew believes it may very well be an artificially intelligent robot that can engage and evolve with its users. In what would appear to be a mix between Joaquin Phoenix’s digital companion Samantha from Her and the iPhone’s knowledge navigator Siri, Musio is an AI personal assistant that is capable of holding natural conversations, sharing emotions, growing wiser with age and communicating with connected objects in its environment.

Musio is comprised of three different brains — simple, smart and genius — that vary in terms of complexity, memory, battery and speed. For instance, simple merely features a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 16GB of memory, a 1800mAh battery, all while lacking any wireless functionality. Genius, on the other hand, boasts a 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, 64GB of memory, a 3000 mAh battery, an on-board AVR chip, as well as Wi-Fi, Buetooth Low Energy and ZigBee compatibility to control smart home gadgets.

The system itself is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop OS and built around the versatile ATmega328 MCU. Meaning, the Arduino-friendy device can be programmed to the liking of its owner through its accompanying Arduino and Android controller libraries. What’s more, Musio also comes with a developer kit add-on that includes an accelerometer, a trio of Arduino Mini boards, ZigBee modules and Arduino ZigBee shields.

Unlike other virtual personal assistants before its time, Musio can actually converse with its user — whether that’s offering up an appointment reminder, gossiping about a colleague at work, lending a helping hand during a homework assignment or asking a question to satisfy its curiosity. AKA’s mission was to devise a robot that not only thinks on its own, but ultimately creates an interactive learning environment for people. Moving ahead, the team hopes to further improve its built-in textual and vision intelligence, and integrate motion, in order to make it a truly holistic AI machine.

“AKA is using Musio to create an ecosystem which consists of Musio Friends, which also have built-in AI and sensor-technologies. Your artificially intelligent friend Musio wants to develop with you. This ecosystem will become possible not only with our developers’ efforts but yours as well.”

Ready for a robotic sibling or sidekick to help you out with your daily tasks? Then head over to its official Indiegogo page, where the AKAStudy is currently seeking $50,000. As if it were actually a baby brother or sister, it looks like you’ll have to wait a year before it arrives. Shipment is expected to begin in June 2016.

Synthino XM is a 5-note polyphonic MIDI synthesizer

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This MIDI synthesizer is ideal for any musician or Maker looking to create some grooves.

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In collaboration with Alex Dyba of GetLoFi, Nootropic Design founder Michael Krumpus recently debuted the Synthino XM, a five-note polyphonic synthesizer packed with a four-track sequencer running on the versatile ATxmega128A4U MCU. Successfully funded on Kickstarter where it garnered just over $17,000, the open-source device boasts a fun, aesthetically-pleasing interface with just enough buttons and knobs to let users change parameters on-the-fly.

The gadget is equipped with a 1/4” output jack that not only works with headphones, but serves as a line output for recording and a direct connection to any guitar amplifier. With its standard five-pin MIDI input jack, both musicians and hobbyists alike can easily plug-in any MIDI keyboard, sequencer or drum machine to control the Synthino XM. Arguably one of, if not, the most exciting features has to be its integration of MIDI over mini-USB, which enables any model device with MIDI or DAW software to immediately recognize Synthino XM as an available output. The synthesizer can be used standalone as well, with just a 9V battery and a pair of headphones.

Synthino XM has three modes: synthesizer, arpeggiator, and groovebox. Synthesizer mode permits users to play the Synthino XM with a MIDI controller connected to the MIDI jack or from their favorite DAW software over USB. The arpeggiator allows users to play predefined arpeggios or set their own arpeggio notes with MIDI. Meanwhile, groovebox mode is a bit more sophisticated with a “live” 16-step sequencer that lets musicians lay down four different tracks through a MIDI controller.

Visual indicators are in the form of four bright orange LEDs that can be found beneath each button. When powered on, a series of blinking LEDs prompt users to select a mode by pressing one of the buttons, numerically denoted by “1-3,” respectively. In certain modes, the pots have secondary functions labeled as “fn:” These functions are activated by simply hitting the “4” button, which if held down for three seconds can also reset the program and let users choose a new mode.

To round out its sleek design, all of the electronics are housed between a two laser-cut frosted acrylic layers. Other notable features include:

• 5-note polyphony for superb playability
• 12 waveforms, 4 drum samples
• 12-bit audio at 25KHz output rate
• 4 MIDI channels, each with separate waveform and ADSR envelope settings
• Low pass filter with cutoff frequency and resonance controls
• 2 independent low frequency oscillators (LFOs): pitch and filter
• Selectable waveform for LFOs
• 1V p-p audio output voltage with enough current to drive headphones
• Arpeggiator mode, up to 16 notes
• 4 arpeggiator patterns: up, down, up-down, random
• 4 built-in arpeggiator chords or use MIDI to specify up to 16 notes
• Arpeggiator pitch transposition control
• Tempo control with MIDI clock input
• 16-step live performance “groovebox” sequencer
• Pitch fine-tuning adjustment
• Programmable/upgradable over USB

The Synthino project was first conceived back in 2014. However at the time, it was limited by only five buttons and three pots with no way of playing notes, and like any other prototype, it wasn’t too visually appealing either. Beyond that, the aptly named Synthino ONE was built around an ATmega328 MCU. According to the Krumpus, the latest iteration of the instrument called for a faster processor with double the speed and four times the memory. And so, the ATxmega128A4U was chosen.

Build an automatic temp controller for your grill with Modulo

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Slow and steady wins the taste!

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It’s 4th of July weekend, and that can mean only one thing: time to cue the Springsteen and fire up the grill! Given the finger-lickin’ deliciousness of BBQ ribs, chicken and pulled pork, it’s no wonder that it has become one of the oldest and most popular cooking methods throughout the world. One style in particular, American Southern, involves roasting meat at low temperatures for many hours in the presence of smoke emitted from a charcoal grill. This also happens to be former Pixar engineer and Modulo Labs founder Erin Tomson’s favorite.

As the Maker explains, though charcoal may be an excellent fuel source, it can be a bit difficult to maintain stable temperatures for extended periods of time. And so, she decided to build an automated temperature controller for her grill using a set of Modulo devices.

For those unfamiliar with Modulo, the tiny set of modular circuit boards — which recently launched on Kickstarter — provide DIYers with an easy-to-use, hassle-free way to devise electronic projects. Each board is equipped with its own little processor (ATtiny841) that communicates with an ATmega32U4 driven Controller. Makers can slide their modules right into the so-called Modulo Base which securely holds them in place.

In order to streamline her BBQing process, Tomson employed one Modulo Base along with four other modular pieces. These included an Arduino-programmable controller as the brains of the operation, a full-color OLED display to show the temperature and its coinciding graphs, a knob for setting and adjusting parameters, as well as a thermocouple interface to measure the extreme temperatures within the grill. From there, the Modulo Arduino Library simplifies communication between the main board and its corresponding modules.

“You simply create an object for each module that you’re using,” Tomson adds. “I tested the system by BBQing pork spare ribs and beef back ribs. At first the controller needed some parameters to be tweaked and minor bugs to be fixed, but after an hour or so it was dialed in and kept a steady temperature for the remainder of the cook. Though it seemed to work well, I think I should probably ‘test’ it again soon.”

Want to create an automated temp controller for your charcoal grill? Head over to the Maker’s entire project log on Hackster.io.

Tah is a LEGO block for the Internet of Things

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Tah is an open-source dev board that lets Makers create their own projects and connect them to their mobile device.

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Developed by Indian startup Revealing Hour Creations, Tah is an Arduino-compatible, open-source development board that helps Makers build their own smart projects and connect them to their mobile device over Bluetooth Low Energy. Designed for use as a beacon, a microcontroller and an HID device, the platform employs a smartphone’s built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and other sensors to trigger events in the physical world.

Embedded with an ATmega32U4, Makers can easily apply their Arduino programming skills to the Tah. The megaAVR MCU at its heart features on-board USB 2.0 support, which directly programs the Tah without the need of a USB-to-Serial converter. In addition, the board can act as a USB human interface device (HID), thus enabling a user to devise their own keyboard, mouse, joystick, or other input devices without having to install special software on the host computer.

“We’ve already made sample applications that allow you to control your PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation and Xbox (coming soon) without ever needing to write any code for those platforms — all you need to do is program your Tah board and make a smartphone app, for which we’ve also provided open source examples for both iOS and Android to get you started,” its creators add.

Each Tah can serve as a Bluetooth beacon as well, which communicates a smartphone to reveal its exact location based on its unique identifier — something that can be quite useful for indoor navigation and contextual notifications.

And what’s more, the open-source board is expandable through a relay and sensor, IR transceiver and Arduino Uno breakout shields. For instance, a user can devise a universal remote for their smart appliances or control their gaming system right from their phone.

Late last year, Revealing Hour Creations launched a crowdfunding campaign for its project, where it quickly surpassed its initial pledge goal. If you’d like to get your hands on one, head on over to its CrowdSupply page here. Tah is now shipping to backers.