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Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category

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I first met John Boiles in October 2009 at Dorkbot Austin, when he was an undergrad engineer at UT, and was presenting an RC car he’d hacked so that it could be driven just by tilting his iPod. He’s since graduated and gone to work for Yelp, and in that time his extracurricular projects have included a set of iPod controlled dance floor lights that synchronize with your rump-shakin’, a combination Kegerator and beer-data-logging suite, and an upgunned version of his smartphone steering system that works with a full-size automobile.

His most recent project weds Microsoft’s Kinect to Garry’s Mod, a popular sandbox game based on Valve’s Source physics engine, via PrimaSense’s recently-released OpenNI framework and some custom C++ code.

The net result is a system that recognizes your movements and allows you to interact with virtual objects using the sophisticated physics of Valve’s engine, as the embedded video demonstrates. Don’t miss the bit at 0:30 where John, in the person of a giant robomechanical avatar, kicks a pile of virtual bodies across the screen.

More details and links to source code at Yelp Engineering. [Thanks, John!]

Andy Frey writes in to announce the iPotti, developed using the Make Controller:

So, we have this issue at the office with our single-person bathrooms. We have one “m” bathroom and one “w” bathroom. We have 40+ people in the office. Many people who sit out-of-sight from the bathrooms often walk all the way across our office only to find out that someone else has beaten them to the potti.

To solve this problem, I took a Make Controller from MakingThings.com, wired a couple of Vishay TEMT6000 ambient light sensors (photo transistors) to it, then wrote a Mac desktop app to sit in the status bar to show everyone the status of the pottis. I call it, “iPotti™” and it works awesome!

At the heart of iPotti™ is the Make Controller. It’s an Atmel Sam7 ARM microcontroller with the Make Interface Board stuck to it. The Interface Board has Ethernet, USB, power and breakout headers for the pins of the microcontroller. I wrote a slim little piece of firmware for it that simply broadcasts UDP packets with the status of the pottis. It broadcasts a packet about every couple of seconds.

At the receiving end of the iPotti™ system is a little Mac OS X app designed to sit up in the OS X status bar.

In the Maker Shed:


MakeController Kit v2.0

Ron from Milwaukee, WI, built this nicely executed computer case in a weekend at his friendly local hackerspace, Milwaukee Makerspace. I love how hackerspaces are so great for encouraging projects like this!

This is a semi-portable computer case, made with desktop components and 1/2″ oak plywood, that I hacked together in a weekend at Milwaukee Makerspace. Its main purpose was to try out some ideas that I’ll incorporate into a better design later. But I like the way it turned out.

The Pixel Qi screen from the Maker Shed is a revolutionary plug-and-play LCD display technology for your netbook. This one-of-a-kind 10.1-inch display offers two modes, an easy-to-read multimedia color mode, or a crisp low power e-reader mode. The e-reader mode has 3 times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode, allowing for a high resolution reading experience without sacrifice to super color fidelity for graphics. Upgrade your current display for incredible battery life, and the ability to use your netbook outside in full sunlight. Check out the product page for more information on compatibility, and links to more resources.

Hint, Hint – Follow the Maker Shed on Twitter, or Subscribe to our Deal of The Day RSS feed to keep up to date on the latest deal!

The Pixel Qi screen from the Maker Shed is a revolutionary plug-and-play LCD display technology for your netbook. This one-of-a-kind 10.1-inch display offers two modes, an easy-to-read multimedia color mode, or a crisp low power e-reader mode. The e-reader mode has 3 times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode, allowing for a high resolution reading experience without sacrifice to super color fidelity for graphics. Upgrade your current display for incredible battery life, and the ability to use your netbook outside in full sunlight. Check out the product page for more information on compatibility, and links to more resources.

Hint, Hint – Follow the Maker Shed on Twitter, or Subscribe to our Deal of The Day RSS feed to keep up to date on the latest deal!