Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman’s Truckbot could be built for under $20 (excluding mobile). That’s pretty impressive for such an open and accessible robotics prototyping environment. Using a laser-cut cardboard chassis, $3 micro servos, and a bare bones Arduino, the duo have assembled one of the cheapest platforms to come along in a while. [via GadgetLab]
One of the main reasons for using cell phones as part of robots is to drive down costs. Today’s phones come with wi-fi, cellular connections, Bluetooth, GPS, touch sensing, accelerometers, magnetometers, displays, microphones, speakers, and cameras. They are now being powered by 1Ghz processors and come with ample amounts of storage. Everything you need in a robot except for mobility is already in your pocket. We just needed to add some inexpensive mobility to it.
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
No, they don’t call themselves that. “Bamboobender” is my hackish take on “sandbender,” which many of you folks will probably recognize as a term coined by arch-cyberpunk William Gibson in his novel Idoru. Very roughly, a “sandbender” is a craftsperson who makes a living by carefully hand-crafting ornate enclosures for mass-produced electronics. We don’t see a lot of that, at least in the first world (although mass-produced after-market “custom” enclosures and enclosure-decorations are common), probably because our personal electronics are still pretty ephemeral to us: we all know we’re probably going to be sporting a new phone and/or MP3 player next year. This example, however, comes from Cameroon, where, I presume, the device turnover rate is a lot lower. It’s the work of teacher, wordworker, and entrepreneur Lekuama Ketuafor, whose runs a sole-proprietorship cottage industry called Bamboo Magic. [via AfriGadget]
More:
Alt.CES: Wood-housed electronica: ostensibly green or faux-maker?
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
We just finished up with Ignite Sebastopol, part of Global Ignite Week. During the setup the camera we were going to use to stream the event ended up not working, so we cobbled together this live streaming video rig using a clamp, some duct tape, a light stand, and my Nexus One using the ustream app. By connecting it to USB power we were able to broadcast the entire show. Even though the video quality was dubious, I was really impressed with the audio quality. [Thanks, Matt!]
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
Activity is picking up for the Nexus One. Among the hand full of hacks mentioned in this video is one that allows you to completely customize visual alerts using the LED trackball.
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
Ever wish you could plug any USB peripheral into your cell phone? Well, now you can, at least if you have an Android-based Droid phone. Chris Paget has the details on enabling USB host mode on the Motorola Droid. You’ll have to build a special dongle and roll your own adapter cable, and support is a bit buggy, however the results look promising- Chris was able to get a full size keyboard working with ease. Of course, being able to connect a peripheral and actually having the drivers to use it are two different things, but thanks to the open nature of the Android OS, it shouldn’t be too long before someone gets a kernel running that supports some cool devices. [via robotskirts]
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
It’s beyond me why anyone would want to start a car before they got into it, but if you’re looking for an interesting aftermarket mod for the next car show, this prepaid wireless remote car starter is just the thing. [via engadget]
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
Our buds at iFixIt wanted to see a teardown of a new Motorola Droid, so they offered a $300 bounty to the first person who’d field strip and document the deconstruction of their Droid. Dr. Wreck answered the call. Here are the results of his investigation.
Kyle, of iFixIt, writes:
The phone was quite a handful to take apart, having a multitude of
hidden screws and latches. Interestingly enough, the sliding mechanism
consisted of two rails that were imbedded within the screen portion
of the device, providing a simple and effective method to slide out
the keyboard. Sadly, no aliens or hidden messages to Princess Leia
were found inside.
Motorola Droid Teardown
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
This has to be the coolest car mount for any mobile device out there. Originally designed for home use, maker remington870_20ga from the everythingpre.com forums wired a stock Palm Touchstone Charging Dock to run directly off his car battery using off-the-shelf components. Not only do you get an unencumbered view of the screen, your mobile device gets a chance to charge itself without all the messy cables.
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
Hot on the heels of the recent release of a mobile image editing app for the iPhone, Adobe unveils its photoshop.com mobile for Android. [via phandroid]
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
This novel approach to cellphone microscopy from Dr. Aydogan Ozcan from the University of California, Los Angeles, foregoes bulky lenses and magnifies electronically.
For this electronic system of magnification, inexpensive light-emitting diodes added to the basic cellphone shine their light on a sample slide placed over the phone’s camera chip. Some of the light waves hit the cells suspended in the sample, scattering off the cells and interfering with the other light waves.
Far From a Lab? Turn a Cellphone Into a Microscope [via picturephoning]
More:
Cameraphone microscope extension revisited
Cell phone camera turned remote microscope
Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Read more articles in Cellphones |
Digg this!
