Watch this 3D-printed sculpture create an optical illusion

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Math and art come together to blow your mind.

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A group of German Makers have developed an animated, kinetic sculpture that produces a controlled 3D zoetrope optical illusion. Flux was designed to play with the eye’s perception of space and depth without using any sort of strobe or camera. Simply turn it on and watch it ‘deform.’

As you can see in the video below, a 3D-printed hemisphere rotates at a certain speed while emitting a specific light frequency based on the Fibonacci sequence. (For those unfamiliar with this sequence, it begins with zero then one, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.)

Inside the device lies an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) that controls the motor speed by checking the actual speed with a Hall sensor and an Arduino Mini that shutters its 20W LED 48 times per second.

Be prepared to have your mind blown…

Watch-a got for today’s weather forecast?

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The Weather Watch monitors air pressure and temperature to provide its wearer with the forecast. 

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If you want to know the weather, but care more about geeky style than accuracy, this wrist-mounted watch might be a good project for you. As creator “AgentMess” puts it, “It is obvious that the device cannot obtain the accuracy of established forecast services, but what it lacks in precision it makes up for in style.” He also notes that if you’re not interested in its weather prediction capabilities, “You can use it when you are going for a walk at night to be seen by cars and other road users.”

The display is made using a 16 x 8 LED matrix with a “backpack” to control the display, and its “predictive power” is accomplished using an Adafruit FLORA (ATmega32U4) with a GPS module and barometric pressure sensor. The idea is that the air pressure outside can be used to roughly predict upcoming weather. Since air pressure varies by altitude, the GPS module is employed to compensate for pressure changes due to movement.

As you might suspect, the accuracy of this gadget can be thrown off when indoors, but hopefully its not as important there anyway. Of course, there are all kinds of other things one could do with a GPS-enabled wrist display. This project, though very cool in its current form, is just begging for improvement. If you have any ideas, the original Maker invites you to leave them in his original article!

‘Sup Brow? Send a message to your friend by making a muscle

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Text a friend by lifting your eyebrow using a MyoWare muscle sensor and an Adafruit Bluefruit Feather board. 

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In today’s world, there are all kinds of ways to message one another. There’s texting, emailing, Skyping, Snapchatting, and countless other forms of communication. But what if you could send a message to your friend by simply raising your eyebrow?

This was something Adafruit’s Becky Stern and Kate Hartman wanted to make a reality in their recent wearables project, ’Sup Brows. To bring this idea to life, the duo employed a MyoWare muscle sensor along with a Feather Bluefruit 32U4 LE (ATmega32U4) microcontroller to transmit a signal through the phone to Adafruit IO and then IFTTT to trigger an SMS.

“It’s really neat to use non-verbal communication like facial expressions as an interface for electronics,” Hartman explains.

As cool of a project as this may be, ‘Sup Brows is simply the beginning. Since it’s connected to IFTTT, the possibilities of what you can accomplish by creating a recipe and just raising your eyebrows are endless. Similarly, Stern and Hartman note that it can also be hooked up to a variety of other muscles to have activities prompted by other facial expressions, gestures and actions.

So whether it’s booking an appointment with your cosmetic surgeon when your Botox wears off or getting yourself out of a date with a butt dial, everything is fair game. Intrigued? Head over to Adafruit’s tutorial page to get started.

 

Meet the drone that flies, floats and swims underwater

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The Loon Copter looks like something out of James Bond.

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It’s in our nature to be curious, so it comes with no surprise that there have been a lot of excitement surrounding commercial drones. Drones open up the skies for ordinary people to explore the land from above and if the history of human innovation has taught us anything, it’s that we have the tendency take something great and make it even better. Researchers from Oakland University’s Embedded Systems Research Laboratory have done just with Loon Copter, the first aerial and underwater drone.

Fittingly named after the aquatic bird, the Loon Copter is a multi-rotor platform capable of traditional aerial flight, on-water surface operation and sub aquatic diving. The Michigan-based research team of Dr. Osamah Rawashdeh, Sean Simpson, Hamzeh Alzubi and Iyad Mansour started this project in 2014 and demonstrated successful operation in early 2015.

The Loon Copter has the body of a conventional quadcopter, but the cylinder that hangs below the air frame is what truly gives it the unique capabilities. The cylinder, when filled with air, changes the drone’s bouyancy so it can transition from flight to floating on water. The cylinder also can fill up with water and sink, allowing the drone to dive. The four propellers used for flying in the air, is also for navigating in the water. The drone can seamlessly return to flight by pumping out the water. Sounds like something out of a James Bond movie right? It’s not too far-fetched as the Loon Copter’s design can be adapted for search and rescue applications, or marine research.

The Loon Copter is one of the 10 international semifinalists in the 2016 Drones for Good competition, which received 1,017 entries from 165 countries. Dr. Rawashdeh and his team will be in Dubai from February 4-6, 2016 competing for the grand prize of $1 million. Learn more about the Loon Copter and the team’s work by visiting their website.

It’s never been so easy to build your own Arduino-based quadcopter

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The YMFC-3D V2 flight controller enables everyone to create their own Arduino drone. 

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Quadcopters, or “drones” as they are sometimes inaccurately known, seem to be getting a lot of attention currently. There are, of course, many off-the-shelf components to control your flying contraption, but if a stock flight controller (FC) isn’t geeky enough, you can always turn an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) into one.

That’s exactly what Joop Brokking has done. As the creator puts it, “I made the YMFC-3D [Your Multicopter Flight Controller] V2 flight controller software so everybody can build their own Arduino quadcopter and having a great learning experience.”

The video below explains things nicely, but to summarize, his Arduino software is divided into three sketches that attempt to automate much of the configuration procedure. First, a setup program is loaded into the Uno, which outputs specific steps for the user to go through to set up the transmitter and gyroscope. Next, a separate program is employed to help calibrate the electronic speed controllers, commonly known as ESCs, that directly power the motors. Finally, the actual FC program is loaded into the Arduino, so you can actually test out and fly your ‘copter.

For more information, as well as source code, you’ll want to check out Brokking’s website. He also has information there on his earlier version, which is meant for those already experienced with radio controlled flight and the Arduino.

One neat thing about a build like this is that, in theory, one could program the Uno to do all kinds of tricks, like control an LED strip while in flight or turn a servo. This concept could, it would seem, even be expanded to maneuver other kinds of RC vehicles. On the other hand, one would need to be careful not to tie up too much processing power and quite literally “crash” your system!

 

Fabulous Beasts is like Jenga with an IoT twist

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Fabulous Beasts is a game of strategy and balance in which you build a tower of animals on your tabletop, then help them evolve in a connected digital world.

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Video games have come a long way in the past several years, yet they’ve also increased children’s fascination with screened devices. And unfortunately, alternatives like board and card games seem to lack the high-tech pizzazz kids are looking for these days. This was a problem London-based studio Sensible Object wanted to solve.

Fabulous Beasts is the startup’s first game, which combines the physical interaction of old-school fun with today’s digital savviness. Inspired by the Internet of Things, players take turns in constructing a Jenga-like tower by balancing multi-colored, animal-shaped blocks on top of each other.

Similar to popular games like Disney Infinity and Skylanders, Fabulous Beasts is hoping to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, all while creating a deeper and more dynamic experience for the younger generation.

The game itself is made for one to five players, each of whom become “gods” ruling over an app-connected world, visible on any phone or tablet over Bluetooth. Before each turn, players scan their RFID-embedded game pieces, also known as “Beast Artefacts,” via a reader and then place them atop the stack. As this happens, the animals will appear on the mobile device, and evolve and augment in interesting ways.

As time goes on, the tower becomes taller and more complex, and consequently worth more points. The objective is get the highest score (or fabulousness) before the tower eventually falls down. Once this occurs, just like Jenga, the game comes to an end.

What’s more, Fabulous Beasts is a fine example of a project that has transcended from beyond the MakerSpace and into the MarketPlace, having originally prototyped with 3D printing and Arduino. The studio is now launching a crowdfunding campaign to draw attention from the public.

Sound like a game for you and your children? Head over to its Kickstarter campaign, where the Sensible Object crew is currently seeking $214,582. Delivery is expected to get underway in November 2016.

This Maker built an Arduino attachment for his stationary bike that let him pedal through a virtual world

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For $40, you can add a virtual reality experience to your boring stationary bike.

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As great of a calorie-burning exercise as it may be, riding a stationary bike is typically pretty boring. To add a little more excitement to the relatively dull workout, Paul Yan decided to enhance it with the help of virtual reality. The best part? Unlike commercial products that can cost upwards of a few hundred dollars, the Maker was able to create an “Arduino thingamajig” for just $40.

The unit attaches to a bike and wirelessly communicates with an accompanying mobile device over Bluetooth Low Energy. It is equipped with an optical tachometer that’s responsible for measuring the revolution of a wheel; meaning, it can monitor the movement and speed of any stationary cycle or piece of exercise equipment with a rotating part.

“I’m using a mountain bike on an indoor trainer but the beauty of this non-invasive approach is that you could use it with treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines, or anything that has a looping/revolving surface,” Yan explains.

The attachment is placed next to the rear wheel, where it detects a paper strip on the tire as its starting point. Each time the wheel goes around, the Arduino sends a wireless message to the paired phone.

Using a custom app and a pre-fab virtual environment powered by the Unity 3D game engine, the smartphone is placed inside a VR viewer strapped to the cyclist’s face. Now instead of staring at the wall or TV while pedaling away, the wearer can immerse themselves in a 3D city. The virtual bike will only nudge forward whenever the app receives a message from the Arduino reporting that the physical bike’s wheel has made a complete rotation.

“We are effectively mapping the physical action of pedaling to movement in the virtual space to make an oversized gaming controller,” the Maker adds.

The headset that Yan used only cost $10, and is compatible with Google Cardboard. He does advise those looking to build something similar that, “It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to have the physical bike steer the direction of the virtual bike. Why not give the player total freedom to explore?”

When all is said and done, Yan’s project is certainly a fun and more engaging way of turning a mundane activity into something a lot more exciting — without breaking the bank or overcomplicating things. See it in action below!

Maker creates his own life-size BB-8

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17-year-old Angelo Casimiro decided to build a fully-functional, smartphone-controlled BB-8.

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Until Episode VII came out, if you were a true Star Wars fan, building a working R2-D2 replica would seem like the thing to do. With the emergence of BB-8, R2 now has competition for the coolest robot in the galaxy, and for which droid you should recreate.

At first glance the BB-8, with its continuously-rotating body and a head that always stays nearly upright, looks like something that could only be made with computer graphics on a movie set. 17-year-old Maker Angelo Casimiro, however, proves that isn’t the case with his life-size, phone-controlled toy. The best part of it all? According to his exhaustive tutorial, the project should cost only around $120 — a little less than Sphero’s miniature device.

The physics student from De La Salle University in the Philippines was able to purchase most of the items from a hardware store while recycling pretty much everything else, like a Christmas ball for its eye, an old Wi-Fi router antenna, and roll-on deodorant balls for the mechanism of the droid’s head to keep it upright. BB-8’s head is made from styrofoam, and the body is a beach ball reinforced with papier-mâché.

The secret to his BB-8 build is that inside the sphere is a two-wheeled vehicle. When it moves, this vehicle rolls around inside, changing the ball’s center of gravity and causing it to go across the floor. (Think of it like a giant hamster ball.) The head, in turn, is stuck to the top of the spherical body via a structure inside of the ball made out of wood and magnets. Control is accomplished using an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) with a motor shield and a Bluetooth module, which allows it to take signals from a smartphone via the “Arduino Bluetooth RC Car” app. There’s even an MP3 module and speaker that enables it to beep and talk just like in the film.

Though the concept of this bot is likely simpler than what you would have thought it would take to produce one of these, it still took a lot of work from several people to get things perfect! If you’d like to try it yourself, Casimiro has provided a detailed overview video, as well as a 47-step tutorial over on Instructables.

Building a power switch for Chromecast

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This Maker built a power switch for his Google Chromecast with the help of an ATtiny85, Bluetooth and Tasker.

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The Google Chromecast device is a neat media player that simply plugs into your TV to play media. One thing it doesn’t have, though, is a way to turn it off remotely. This might not be a problem for most people, but Ilias Giechaskel was using it as an input for a computer monitor which didn’t have a “remote off” function. It did, however, have the ability to go to sleep when no input was received, so turning off the Chromecast would serve a useful function in his setup.

Gichaskel decided to accomplish this task with “hardware that he already had available,” and opted for an ATtiny85 with its small physical footprint and number of I/O pins to control everything. He also used a Bluetooth chip for communication with his smartphone. The module receives an “on” or “off” command from the phone, then the ATtiny switches power to the Chromecast appropriately.

Originally, this setup meant that the user had to manually turn Bluetooth on, connect it to the Arduino, send the appropriate commands, then turn Bluetooth off. Doing all of this manually wasn’t what Giechaskel had in mind, so he wrote a Tasker plugin which takes care of this for him.

Of course, this isn’t Giechaskel’s only ATtiny85 hack. Be sure to check out how he replaced the guts of a bathroom scale using one!

Touch the banana, get the Wi-Fi password

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Bet your office doesn’t share wireless network credentials like this… 

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Turns out, bananas aren’t just an excellent source of potassium, they’re also an excellent source of wireless network credentials. Just ask Danish Reddit user and network administrator “Sysvival” who recently decided to use the fruit as a unique way to distribute Wi-Fi passwords to guests at his workplace.

The idea originated after Sysvival was asked to set up a captive portal for his office, like those seen in most hotel chains and coffee shops. The administrator decided to generate a pool of 5,000 passwords, each of which were valid for eight hours of access. These temporary codes are stored on a Raspberry Pi, which is connected to a Makey Makey GO (ATmega32U4) via a USB cable. The Makey Makey forms the a connection between the banana and Pi.

Now, whenever a visitor needs to get onto the Wi-Fi network, all he or she has to do is touch the banana, which triggers the Raspberry Pi to spit out a password on an attached display. When contact is established, the capacitance of the banana drops. The Makey Makey detects this change and interprets it as the press of a key, therefore sending the signal to the Pi that it needs to hand out a password voucher.

Why go through such lengths? According to Sysvival, “It’s fun, it’ll make people smile, it beats a static WPA password in funniness, and when people leave our office, they can’t access our Wi-Fi because there’s no banana to touch.” Intrigued? You can check out the entire project on its Reddit thread here.