LineFORM is a futuristic shape-changing interface

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This shape-changing soft robot can be a phone, a wristwatch, a keyboard, a lamp and more.

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When it comes to today’s mobile devices, the touchscreen has increasingly become one of the most common ways that we interact with our gadgetry. From our smartphones to our in-car infotainment systems to our computers, seemingly everything has a touch display. However, one team from MIT’s Tangible Media Group wants to change that.

The researchers have developed a shape-shifting, snake-like soft robot built from actuated curve interfaces that can transform into pretty much anything — from a phone, to a wristwatch, to a lamp, to a cable, to an exoskeleton. The project, called LineFORM, is comprised of several small servo motors controlled by an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560), which are covered by a black spandex skin embedded with pressure sensors. The linear set of motors can move either together with the others or independently to create all sorts of shapes for various applications in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, the system is connected to a MacBook running custom programs written in Processing.

The hope is that LineFORM will open up new ways to engage with technology. According to the team, “We envisage LineFORM-style devices coupled with flexible displays as next generation mobile devices, which can display complex information, provide affordances on demand for different tasks, and constrain user interaction.”

For example, LineFORM can be worn around your wrist and give you a tap when an appointment is approaching, and then curl up into a touch-sensitive keypad. It can wiggle and vibrate whenever you receive a text message. It can twist into an assortment of shapes and be employed as a “dynamic ruler” for drafting and drawing. It can wrap around your limps like bandages and act like a robotic exoskeleton, while also recording motion and replaying it back on your body. What’s more, a light module enables it to magically turn into tabletop lamp for reading.

Although still a proof-of-concept, LineFORM boasts endless possibilities, and who knows, may one day be the single replacement for the dozens of electronics we use everyday for countless things. Intrigued? Check out the project’s paper here, or just watch it in action below!

Hacking an Amazon Echo to control a wheelchair

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This Maker modified his electric wheelchair to be voice-controlled using Amazon Echo, Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

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Amazon Echo is a device that listens to what you say, and can respond with information or even some simple home automation tasks. Turning lights on is interesting, but Bob Paradiso wondered if he “could push Echo’s utility a little further.” In his case, he was able to modify an electric wheelchair to be voice-controlled using the Echo with a Raspberry Pi and Arduino Uno (ATmega328).

Although Paradiso considered using Echo to add things an Amazon to-do list and IFTTT to carry out an action based on the list, he decided to instead setup the Raspberry Pi to emulate a Hue lighting hub. This meant more direct control of the chair, and less delay between voice command and action.

As seen in the first video below, this type of interface might be cumbersome for day-to-day use, but could possibly serve as an alternate input method. Paradiso is quick to point out that his control method is a demonstration, and “lacks CRITICAL safeties that need to be in place for anyone (but especially someone with significant disability) to use safely.”

Paradiso also tried this out using only Pi-based software PocketSpinx, which, according to him gave “acceptable but worse results.” This can be seen (with a functioning fan at 1:25) in the second clip below.

Intrigued? Head over to the Maker’s entire project page to read more.

This dress can sense its surrounding environment

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Talk about a fashion sense! This smart dress measures the aggressiveness of the environment to analyze how it affects the mood and behavior of individuals.

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According to co-creator Marìa Castellanos’ website, her custom dress is “equipped with sensors to analyze questions such as variations in noise, temperature, atmospheric pressure, ultraviolet radiation or the amount of carbon monoxide present in our daily life. All this information will be transferred, via Bluetooth or open Wi-Fi networks, to a mobile phone connected to the Internet and it will generate a big database set up with the geolocated references collected.”

This may see like a lofty goal for Castellanos and fellow co-creator Alberto Valverde, but a very good prototype has already been made as seen in the video below featuring model Irene Arroyo in this futuristic (Matrix-esque even) ensemble. Giving this project further credence, the dress was the winning project for Next Things 2015 – Conducta, a Spainish art and technology challenge.

To accomplish environmental monitoring, sensor modules with 3D-printed housings take environmental data and displays this in other modules via an Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4). Interestingly, some of these modules use LED lights to interact with humans, while others use a servo to spin a dial in a clock-like display.

Intrigued? You can head over to the project’s page more information to learn more. The site is in Spanish, so depending on your linguistics skills, you may have to dust off your high school Español or use Google Translate to do the heavy lifting for you!

[h/t Adafruit]

Levitate a magnet with an Arduino

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Watch this Maker suspend a neodymium magnet in midair with the help of an Arduino Mega.

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If you went to enginering school, you probably remember a class called “Control of Dynamic Systems” or something similar. One of the most common concepts that you likely forgot the math behind was the “PID,” or proportional-integral-deriviatave, loop. This crazy-sounding name basically means that it takes three mathematical concepts, factors them into an equation, and outputs the correct amount of power to, say, a heating element on an oven.

If you have forgotten the math behind this, you can conveniently just buy a box called a “PID controller,” tune it, and forget all about Laplace transforms. On the other hand, as shown in this Instructables piece, you can make your own PID controller using an Arduino Mega.

As if controlling one power source wasn’t challenging enough, the setup shown below can balance four electromagnets’ power outputs to keep a neodymium “floater” suspended between them. The suspended disk wobbles slightly in the video, so it’s possible that a more developed setup or different tuning values could cut down on these vibrations. Maybe this could even be perfected to the point where these oscillations are nearly imperceptible.

Oscillations or not, it’s really an amazing project, and showcases what can be done with a firm grasp on PID-mathematics and a low-cost microcontroller setup! Mesmerized? You can check out the entire build here.

Maker builds an automatic feeder for his cats

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If you’re a Maker and you have three cats with various dietary needs, what do you do? Build an automated feeder, of course!

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Jamie Navarro faced a dilemma. His three cats needed to be fed at the same time every day, but sometimes he wasn’t able to accommodate them. Add in the fact that Navarro’s cats had different dietary requirements, and it became a problem that was just begging to be automated. He looked for an off-the-shelf product, but they were either too expensive, not flexible enough, or insecure against cat-raids.

Since Navarro claims to be a “nerd” as well as a “control freak,” the only option was to build it himself. His setup, as seen in the video below, uses an Arduino to control two motors, each attached to a paddle. These paddles, at the bottom of their respective tubes of food, turn a certain amount to allow the right amount of food to drop. A system of cardboard tubes distributes the correct type of “kibble” to each feline’s bowl promptly at 5:15am and 5:15pm.

The machine is laid out using a piece of plywood, allowing easy access to the electronics as well as the mechanical components. Although certainly his own project, Navarro gives credit to the creator of the Internet-Enabled Cat Feeder for figuring out much of the dispensing mechanism.

If you want to attempt this build, Navarro has links to the Arduino code as well as the circuit used and a bill of materials in various formats. The entire project price came out to nearly $200, but that’s definitely worth it for the extra few hours of sleep in my opinion!

[h/t Hackaday]

Turning air pollution into printer ink with Arduino

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This Maker has discovered a way to repurpose soot into ink for printers.

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Black printing ink, commonly found in printers and copy machines, is one of the most consumed products throughout the world. And although it may be quite the cash cow for some companies, one Maker believes that we can make it easily enough using soot found in the air of our polluted cities.

MIT Media Lab graduate Anirudh Sharma — who some may recall from his Arduino LilyPad-based hepatic shoe for the blind — says that his invention, if scaled, can offer a much cheaper alternative to the exorbitant costs of ordinary ink.

“This is not an attempt to win over the pollution. Just a minor itch that led me to build something cool from observations arising from nostalgia of the days back in India,” Sharma explains. “There’s so much soot/pollution around us, especially in crowded cities. What if the same could be repurposed to generate ink for printers?”

And so, the Maker created Kaala — a device that can suck up harmful pollutants from the surrounding air, separate the carbon black, and instantly repurpose it into printer ink with the help of alcohol and oil. This liquid can then be injected into any ordinary HP C6602 printer cartridge for regular use. It’s important to note that, in order for the system to work, it first needs to be exposed to exhaust.

In the video below, you will see that Sharma employed a lit candle and its flame to show off Kaala. The demonstrated device’s pump catches the soot from the burning candle, which is then used to fill a modified HP inkjet cartridge with a mixture of vodka and a little olive oil. For printing, the Maker coupled presumably an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) with Nicholas C Lewis’ Arduino InkShield, which enabled him to print at a 96dpi resolution.

Looking ahead, Sharma intends on improving the soot collector. He plans to suck the soot through a chamber that uses capacitive plates to filter out the carbon from dust in the air. This principle is commonly exercised by chimneys to reduce the carbon particles injected into the atmosphere.

Get tomorrow’s forecast with this weather icon display

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This Maker built a neat wall-mounted weather display that gets the current conditions and forecast from the Internet, and then reveals it as colorful icons.

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While we’ve seen plenty of word clocks in recent months, Jason Rolfe decided to do something a little different. Taking inspiration from these nifty projects, the Wyoming-based Maker has created a neat wall-mounted display that doesn’t reveal the time, but the two-day forecast instead.

Similar to how word clocks spell out the hour and minutes, this installation works by illuminating the high and low temperatures, the likelihood of precipitation and even the projected snowfall, along with a corresponding weather image. An Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4) pulls data from the Weather Underground API while a sketch displays an icon (such as a sun or a cloud) based on the conditions. The unit shifts between forecasts for today, now, tomorrow and tonight at 15 second intervals.

Rolfe implemented a 10×10 grid of 100 addressable LEDs, which shine through the device’s laser-cut acrylic faceplate. The electronics are all housed inside a handmade wooden frame with a colonial style moulding.

So how does it work exactly? In the example below, the weather for today would be a high of 45°F with a 60% chance of snow. If any significant accumulation was expected, it would be indicated by either trace, 2″-3″, 4″-6” or 6+”. Who needs the Weather Channel, right? Check out the Maker’s entire project here.

Pointr is an open data smart street sign

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Press a button and this AVR powered street sign will point you in the right direction.

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During a recent hackathon, one team from South African hackerspace BinarySpace was tasked with building something that could make use of openly available government data in a creative way. For this endeavor, the group took inspiration from BREAKFAST NY’s XMEGA powered Points Sign — an intelligent street sign that parses real-time data to point you in the direction of the most interesting things happening around you.

With this in mind, BinarySpace developed a similar sign dubbed Pointr. Intended for public use, this DIY installation is capable of guiding people towards one of four different government facilities — home affairs, libraries, child services and courthouses — as well as four types of emergency features: police, hospital, fire department and a panic button for immediate assistance.

The body of Pointr is comprised of PVC pipe, a steel pipe and several 3D-printed parts. Housed inside is the belt/pulley mechanism that allows the arms of the sign to swivel. An offset motor gives the project its ability to rotate 360 degrees, albeit not continuously.

“This means that if the sign is pointing at 340 degrees and needed to go to 10 degrees, it would basically move counter clockwise to 10 degrees instead of just moving forward over 360 to 10 degrees. For our purpose this wasn’t an issue at all,” the Makers explain.

At the heart of the system lies an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) along with a RAMPS 1.4 shield driving the stepper motors. Pointr’s software is handled by the Arduino, which processes the location data directly and then sends the message to its corresponding LED screen.

For the control panel, the team mounted eight buttons onto 3D-printed panels along with 3D-printed icons indicating each use. Moreover, all three arms boast an LED screen to reveal the intended target once a button is pushed. The idea is that, if a user presses the panic button, the police will be immediately notified that someone requires help nearby the sign. Press any of the others and it will point the three signs to wherever you intend on going.

Intrigued? You can see the prototype in action below!

The Prankophone is a synth for making prank calls

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Prankophone is a synthesiser and telephone system hybrid that plays melodies to call recipients generated by their phone numbers.

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Russian artist Dmitry Morozov, who we better know as ::vtol::, never ceases to amaze us with his innovative, out-of-the-box projects. Most recently, the Maker has spliced a synthesizer with a telephone and a logic module to create what may be the world’s most annoying machine. (But in the best way possible, of course.)

Who could forget as a kid (or an adult) making prank phone calls using soundboards from sites like eBaum’s World? Well, ::vtol:: has just taken those antics to a whole new level. The aptly named Prankophone is an apparatus which not only calls an unsuspecting person, but plays them an algorithmic melody based on their phone number. The speakers on the device transmit both the synthesized tunes along with the sound from the individual at the other end, but the recipient can only hear noise from the synth.

“Nowadays it’s averting to hear in the phone receiver any sound other than human voice – music means that we have to wait for the answer of the operator, strange electronic noises imply some mistake in decoding,” ::vtol:: explains. “Thus, the sound from Prankophone would be perceived as some kind of mistake, though in reality it is an individual and anonymous sound message, a micro-noise piece which is unique for each number it managed to reach.”

The artist says that was inspired by two historic pieces of technologies crucial to electronic music: the telephone and telegraph. The Prankophone can be set to one of four different modes to call any random number or intended recipients. In manual mode, a user must dial the number of a selected individual the old-fashioned way. Whereas in autonomous mode, the machine will generate the numbers and proceed to dial and emit the sounds all by itself. As its name would suggest, keyboard mode transforms the dialing of a number into a one-octave keyboard with each of the 10 digits correlating to a different musical key. Live mode, however, is a bit different. The number is defined by any of the previous methods, but the sounds aren’t reproduced automatically but from the keyboard, thereby enabling the user to “communicate” through sound with the person who answered on the other line.

“The system of automatic generation of numbers may be calibrated depending on the region, or there is also the international mode which takes into account the phone codes, length of numbers and other parameters,” ::vtol:: adds.

The Prankophone consists of an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and a Raspberry Pi at its core, along with a Nokia phone, a two-channel sound system, a GE telephone for its buttons and a one-octave keyboard. In terms of software, the apparatus runs various Python scripts and uses the Pure Data visual programming language. Intrigued? See and hear the gadget in action below, before heading over to the artist’s official page here.

Maker mods a Wii remote into an autofocus laser

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While it may not be a Glowforge, this Wiimote hack is pretty slick. 

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Chances are that it’s been quite a while since the last time you played Mario tennis or went bowling on your Nintendo Wii. But as we’ve seen with other obsolete devices, there’s no reason to throw it away! In fact, the Wiimote’s unique design lends itself to several innovative projects, like one from Maker Martin Raynsford who has retrofitted the handheld controller into a fully-functional laser cutter.

Raynsford and the Just Add Sharks crew were inspired by the newly-revealed Glowforge 3D laser printer’s ability to autofocus as the head travels along complex curves during cuts and engraves. And so, they employed the Wiimote’s built-in infrared camera to refocus the laser based on the height of the material.

“The hardware automatically identifies these points and feeds back XY positions through a Bluetoth connection. The cutting laser on a laser cutter is an infrared beam, as it cuts through the surface of the material there is a moment where it is reflected off the material and the Wiimote is able to detect the location of the cut,” Raynsford writes. “The location data is fed back to a laptop and by comparing this point against the initial ‘in focus’ point we’re able to detect if the Z-axis needs to move up or down and by how much.”

The optical camera is calibrated to a ‘zero’ point the first time it sees the laser cut. The offset between the current dot position and the zero position is then converted into Z-height adjustments. A laptop sends the data to an Arduino Nano (ATmega328) that is connected between the laser cutter’s on-board controller and the Z-axis stepper motor driver. This gives it the ability to remain in focus throughout the duration of a cut.

“Our laser cutter moves the whole bed up and down to adjust the focal height. There is a lot of mass to move and it gains momentum so it isn’t able to adjust the Z-axis as fast as required. This is why it’s so noisy as it tries to keep up with the requested position,” Raynsford adds.

It should be noted, however, that there are a few drawbacks in the DIY laser cutter when compared to more professional-grade units. For one, the remote’s camera is only able to detect light sources 60 times a second, thereby causing a bit of a lag in the time that it changes height and the actual movement. What’s more, an increased mass on the cutting head prevents the machine from reaching its top speed of 50mm/second, and even if it could, the response time from the system would not be fast enough to cope with changes that quickly.

Conversely, the good news is that many of us have a Nintendo Wii collecting dust somewhere. The project itself was written using C# and Brian Peeks Wiimote Lib, which made hooking up the Wiimote as simple as a few lines of code. Perhaps this will offer a second lease on life for the gaming console!

Intrigued? See it in action above, or check out the Maker’s project page here.