Tag: ARDUINO

Two of the most popular toys amongst DIY enthusiasts right now are the Arduino and the Microsoft Kinect. So what happens when you combine them? Probably the most impressive hack of either device we've ever seen. Created by Michael Zöllner and Stephan Huber from the University of Konstanz, NAVI (or Navigational Aids for the Visually Impaired) allows the blind to easily navigate an ...

The high-tech Zenona Piggy Bank's purpose isn't immediately clear, but when has that ever stopped technology developers? Comprised of an iPhone, Arduino BT and credit card slot, the half-bank half-Tamagotchi gets sad when it's been too long without a payment. Just swipe your card, and a pittance equivalent to pocket change will be transferred to a separate account. Weird. ...

In case you hadn't noticed, physical media are dying. Digital audio files long ago replaced CDs, movies are regularly available to stream, and games will download at the click of a mouse. There's no more reason to ever run to your local Best Buy . But there is still something alluring about physically touching your content source (just ask a vinyl fetishist). Jordi Parra, a Spanish design ...

Clang your way through the end of your work day by plugging your favorite tunes into Tellart's nifty 'Bells!' site. By merely dragging those little virtual bells into position, you'll trigger an Arduino processor that plays the genuine articles right there in Tellart's Rhode Island office (watch in your browser!). We figured out AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long,' and were pleasantly ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. While you've ...

Parents often fret about video game addiction and the effects of violent games, but one super-geek dad has apparently realized how to address those concerns. Eleven-year-old Joseph DeRose loves gaming, so his perceptive father recently took part in -- and actively promoted -- his son's pastime by helping him to construct an incredibly cool Halloween costume. Relying on an incredibly steady ...

Bringing a smile to a geek's face is easy: take several things they love (especially things they love ironically), and jam them together in some ridiculous way that's both incredibly novel and completely useless. It's a flawless formula that leads to the creation of things like this tweeting Snuggie (or Slanket if that's your bag). The recipe is simple. Take one cheap piece of infomercial-famous ...

Here's designer Lauren McCarthy's Conversacube, a cheeky exercise in parody. The little box -- fitted with infrared sensors, microphones and an Arduino processor -- discourages stilted conversation by supplying you with cues like "compliment" and "admit," to keep the words flowing. McCarthy's website provides some self-aware ad copy for the device: "Do away with uncomfortable conversation. ...

Is it not enough that robots are taking our jobs? Now they need to take our unemployment, too? Chris Eckert's 'Gimme' 'bot is a panhandling droid that relentlessly demands spare change from a roomful of viewers. Controlled by an Arduino Pro Mini (a favorite of amateur electronics geeks) and a sensor that searches for possible donors, 'Gimme' rolls about the room with the help of two stepper motors ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. Maybe we've ...

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. Your writer has faithfully reinforced his shark phobia over the past few weeks, and has also chronicled the tech that can help us to learn more about these formidable ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/07/06/back-to-the-future-inspired-shoes-really-tie-themselves/'; 'Back to the Future,' like America, just had a birthday (although it only turned 25), and our feeds are blowing up with McFly-related memorabilia. Back in 2008, Nike released a pair of special edition 'Back to the Future II' inspired high-tops, but, as badass as the Marty McFly 2015 Nike ...

Update: This post has been updated to reflect information provided to us by the actual designers of Goldie, The Interaction Research Studio. The Poor Clares in York are about as archaic as a religious order can get, with roots dating back to the 13th century and a 145-year-old covenant in northern England. Though the Franciscan nuns have taken a vow of silence, and eat a strict vegetarian ...

As if the lives of starving artists weren't hard enough, the Monets and Manets of tomorrow may now face competition from an entirely new field of sober, non-tortured prodigies: robots. With the help of an Arduino processor, the Drawbot uses a steppe motor-powered stylus to sketch out a series of patterns on a piece of paper. Eventually, its random doodles coalesce to form a unique picture, ...

Share New York-based artist and programmer Rob Seward's 'Four Letter Words' electronic sculpture will spell out dirty words at you (No fear, it also does nice ones, too). A series of small fluorescent tubes move about to form an angular typeface of shifting verbiage. Seward explains the origins of the words in his artist statement: The piece displays an algorithmically generated word ...