prosthetic knowledge

Arduino: creation is child’s play 

Brilliant 20 minute documentary from WIRED Italy on the open-source microcontroller which, thanks to simplifying the coding process, has enabled makers to create experimental artistic hardware.

Arduino, Its co-creator Massimo Banzi and all the other users that adopted this technology are the perfect example of a small thing that manages to thrive and spread all over the world, against all odds.

What is Arduino? What is its purpose? Who can benefit from it? Why was it so successful? We tried to answer all these questions through the stories of a bunch of great people, from all over Italy, who committed their talent and their passion to this project.

We will also look at the future: what are the frontiers of its use? First of all, 3D printing, which with its fast development based on the “open source hardware” concept, launched by Arduino, seems to border into sci-fi with its applications.

You can watch the whole video at WIRED Italy here

Sega Rally Championship RC Cars Project 

Converting an old two seat arcade driving game cabinet to control remote controlled cars with cameras, developed for a tech event in Portugal (video embedded below):

From The Arcade Man:

The Artica guys are addicted to race games and Trackmania is only one of their favorites!!

They’re still addicted to race games but they don’t play them, instead, they prefer to create their own games.

They thought it would be cool to drive a remote control car using a steering wheel and pedals, and if the car had a wireless cam, the gamer could look at the screen and really see what the car was seeing in real time, just like an arcade game!

This was the proposal to Sapo Codebits! To have an arcade game where it would be possible to drive two cars and participate in a real race, without any simulations or complex algorythms, neither 3D graphics.. They want something real! Celso Martinho from Sapo was very excited with their idea, and by coincidence (or not) they were planning to have a retro gaming area at Sapo Codebits!!

More Here

Glockentar 

Hacked together music instrument mash-up combining a guitar and a glockenspiel, with added projection-mapped lighting on the strings (ssing Arduino, openFrameworks, and MadMapper) - by Aaron Sherwood (video embedded below):

Glockentar from Aaron Sherwood on Vimeo.

The Glockentar combines a glockenspiel with a guitar.

Each time a string is plucked a glockenspiel bell is struck with a solenoid, and a beam of light is projected across the length of the string.

More at Aaron’s blog here

Pinokio

An interactive animatronic lamp by Shanshan Zhou, Adam Ben-Dror, Joss Doggett - video embedded below:

Pinokio from Adam Ben-Dror on Vimeo.

Created …with Processing, Arduino, and OpenCV.

Pinokio is an exploration into the expressive and behavioural potentials of robotic computing. Customized computer code and electronic circuit design imbues Lamp with the ability to be aware of its environment, especially people, and to expresses a dynamic range of behaviour. As it negotiates its world, we the human audience can see that Lamp shares many traits possessed by animals, generating a range of emotional sympathies. In the end we may ask: Is Pinokio only a lamp? – a useful machine? Perhaps we should put the book aside and meet a new friend.

IRIS by HYBE - Light Conditions 

The makers of this interactive installation / LCD Canvas got in contact again to demonstrate their work in different light conditions, and also reveal a bit more about the hardware used in it:

Expandable Matrix of Transmissive Monochrome LCD (90x90mm), Custom designed Arduino compatible controller board, DMX512, SPI, Kinect /

IRIS is a unique media canvas with matrix of conventional information display technology - a monochrome LCD. Through the phased opening and closing of circular-segmented black Liquid Crystal, IRIS can create various patterns and control the amount (size) of passing lights. IRIS is an interactive medium for visual simplicity which uses the passage of ambient light, not emission of light itself.

It is a selected and supported work by Da Vinci Idea Program(2012) at Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon, KOREA

Romance Pants

Bullduino-powered jeans fly wirelessly alters room ambiance when opened, dimming lights, turns on the stereo for romantic music, lights candles. Internet of Things? Internet of Trousers? Video Below

Romance Pants - Red Bull Creation 2012 Entry by Team Instructables from Audrey Love on Vimeo.

Romance pants are a pair of pants that dims the room lighting and raises the stereo in relation to the fly zipper being pulled down. Of course it does not stop there. The romantic coup de grace involves electronically ignited candles triggered by the unbuttoning of the waist button. This subtle sensual assault is sure to shock and awe any prospective partner into ecstatic submission. As the evening progresses, this smarty-pants technology will undoubtedly to set the mood to the appropriate level of ‘getting it on.’ Romance pants are definitely where the future lay. 

Should you feel inspired, you can find out how they are made here

@JarroseLaPlante 

Project connects Twitter to a plant watering system - send a tweet mentioning the account name, and a few drops of water will be given to the plant. There is a webcam to see the process happen:

@JarroseLaPlante is an installation created by Félicien Goguey and Thomas Meghe. A plant has a twitter account, when you send her a tweet you water her with a few drops. Because a single tweet can’t save her, she needs the twitter users’ collaboration to grow up !

A Processing application listens to new tweets via the Twitter API. The servo motor which bring water to the plant is piloted through Arduino. Moreover a sensor enables to check the humidity rate in the pot, if it’s too high the installation is blocked, if it’s too low the plant tweets in order to alert her followers.

If you follow the plant, she can send you private messages. Only public tweets can activate the installation.

You can check the project’s website here

Plant-In City 

Art installation merges gardening and technology, creating Arduino-powered frames with sensors for plants to be monitored, and interacted with via smartphone app. From the project’s Kickstarter page:

We’re creating a space where a community who loves architecture, technology and plants can meet. Our mission is to integrate these disciplines into a new paradigm that changes the way we live and interact with nature. We believe that interacting with plants will improve our lives.

Plant-in City taps into the natural systems that foster plant life to give the plants themselves a voice. This revolutionary planter system contains built-in sensors that are activated by sun exposure, changes in soil moisture, humidity, temperature, and other natural cycles. Once activated, these sensors translate the environmental data into sounds or visuals, creating an imaginary vibrant wilderness.

More about the project can be found here

Point Cloud 

Mechanical installation is a wireframe form which adjusts it’s shape according to a weather data feed. Video below:

Point Cloud is an attempt to reimagine our daily interaction with weather data. Weather has always had a unique place in our lives, because it has a multiplicity that encompasses both the concrete and the indeterminate. It is the intangible context within which we build our lives and our cities, but it is also the physical element against which we create protective shelter. Most of the time it is an invisible network that we can see but are not aware of; yet it can manifest in a spectacle or disaster, come forward and activate our senses, make us forget our rationality in delight or fear. With modern scientific and technological developments, we can now deploy sophisticated monitoring devices to document and observe weather. Yet despite these advances, our analysis and understanding of meteorology is still largely approximate, and in many cases, inaccurate. Weather continues surprise us and elude our best attempts to predict, control, and harness the various elements.

In contrast, however, the nuances of weather’s continuously shifting states are largely oversimplified as the information is transmitted into our daily experience. Our various home and mobile devices most likely distill a forecast into static representations, such as numeric values or simple infographics of sun, clouds, or rain. There is a deep discrepancy between the flatness of the visualizations we are accustomed to, and the rich mixture of tactility and perceptibility of our immediate physical experience. As a critical response to these issues, Point Cloud emerges as a sculptural form defined by a thin wire mesh, driven asynchronously by 8 individual servos controlled via Arduino. As whiteness of the hanging structure begins to disappear into the background, the viewer is treated to a constantly morphing swarm of black points dancing through midair.

More at the project’s Vimeo page + Flickr page

Piccolo

Small CNC bot, potential drawing machine for only $70. As you can see in the video below, it is capable of some interesting things:

Piccolo is a pocket-sized stand-alone CNC platform. For under $70, you will be able to assemble your personal Arduino-compatible kit for tinkering, and playing with basic CNC output. Be it plotting a quick graffiti, printing a one-off business card on the fly, or multiple Piccolos working together to create a large mural, this kit provides a platform for experimenting with 2D or 3D digital fabrication at a small scale.

We are currently refining the Piccolo prototype into an open-source design that is simple, quick to assemble, and easy to use, and is entirely composed of digitally manufactured components and inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware.

The Piccolo project includes Arduino and Processing libraries, to use Piccolo in a variety of ways such as moving autonomously or responding to sensors and data, whilst providing an accessible educational tool and a new output for Processing sketches.

Piccolo isn’t available yet, but you can be notified via their website here

Hacked Commodore 64 Turned Into USB Keyboard

Now works with an iPad.

From biosrhythm:

Just a follow up to the C64 USB keyboard Arduino project that I made last week. I was curious if it would work on the iPad using the iPad Camera Connection kit. So I tried it out and was greeted with the error “Cannot Use Device” and “The connected USB device is not supported.” I dismissed the window and tried anyway and it worked! I was able to type in any application.

More Here

Semi-Automatic Paintbrush

Arduino-powered handheld mini printer