Natural or Man Made?

A variety of robotics engineers are now exploring how to make electronics more like plant life.

A plant that grows roots...

a plant that reacts to human movement

Under the hood.

luminescent electronic plant like systems.

How tech is changing Education...

These videos begin to sum up the methods and mindsets that I plan to discuss with my thesis...

Gadgets for sale...

Some neat electronic gadgets that I found from the company Quirky...

Also, this one is an analog invention, but I think it's pretty useful none the less...

3d Art

Adam Martinakis

Click the link above to take a look at some amazing graphic work done by Adam Martinakis, artist and technology guru, this guy really pushes 3d rendering into some interesting areas.

Adam Martinakis - digital 3d art 2009-2011 from Adam Martinakis on Vimeo.

Yeah, that's a fish driving. Deal with it.

The Future and Robots and Drones, Oh-My!

While this post doesn't relate directly to what I want to build in the class, I have found a lot of inspiration in these  videos about the future, robots and drones...

First, is an article looking at the predicted future of 2050. As all predictions go, some of these things will most likely come to pass (automated driving systems for sure), and others will not... (the segue thing has been kind of a bust). With the rise of drone technology, I think the advent of flying cars may indeed actually come to pass in my lifetime.

2050 - and the future of transportation

While on the topic of drones, here are a few videos that I have been looking at demonstrating their possibilities.

Both videos show drones flying in groups and following unbelievable commands. The third video shows a drone flying around with a glass of wine on it... this made me think of a future with rooms or bars that contain drone tables that follow you around.

Now from Drones to robots... lots of varieties here.

Robots to do things, such as exploration...

and the humanization of robots. The Zeno, is especially interesting.

Drawing with GPS

Another thing that I have been interested in for a while is drawing via GPS. In a nod to the conceptual artists, I think it would be interesting to have driving or walking directions (ala google maps) act "as the artwork", and then when people traverse the rought provided, a GPS tracker creates various drawings. These drawings could even relate to places traveled to (local pet shops draw the shape of a fish) or be ironic in nature (us historical landmarks draws a shape of a dollar bill).

Below are a couple of videos that I have found in this regard...

Youth Hacking...

In terms of education and where physical computing is starting to take hold, young versions of maker space programs such as Curriosity Hacked (Formerly Hacker Scouts) are popping up. This program takes the concept of small projects or badages that build on each other (or scafold) to slowly increase skills.

 

The future of Audrino Prototyping?

I found this great site that lets you simulate programming and wiring audrino projects online...

http://www.123dapp.com/circuits

http://123d.circuits.io/

Unfortunately the site is slightly clunky and there is only a limited number of parts you can use (for instance, there is no Piezo Element). It is also a bother that the basic TUT's don't have a back button and sometimes code that works on the audrino, error's out.

There are good things too though, such as being able to change the resistance of a transistor or the color of an LED by simply changing a few numbers. All in all, this is certainly a step in the right direction to making physical computing more teacher and student friendly.

Getting musical...

I wired up a piezo element to my Audrino today. I started with the base code that played twinkle twinkle littler star provided by Audrino's website.

I immediately got sick of that and went off to find some better tunes.

I then found code online for playing the Mario theme and the underworld theme. After I did some fiddling and learned how to write a pitches.h file to improve the melody I got that up and running.

Looking through the code, things here are much more complex, but I started to figure out what was going on after staring at it for a bit.

I then ventured to find the notes to a different song and attempt to write it out myself. Keeping with the video game theme I choose to do the zelda theme and using a notated YouTube video of someone playing it, put in the proper notes and pauses into my code.

Here is the result...

Also, here is a link to the base code for this:
Mario Themes

Blink!

So I ran the blink code for Audrino last week for the first time annnnd...

Ta-Da! A blinking LED.

Only a few more steps to this...

Off to experiment!

Simulated Sunrise

One Idea that I have been toying with for a final project revolves around a simulated sunrise. My girlfriend has trouble getting up in the morning, especially in the winter as many people do. I am considering creating a fake window that acts as a sunrise alarm clock, and possible also a motion activated light switch. I might even program the Audrino to measure the light outside and mimic it.

Here are a few products and projects that I have found that relate to this:

First up we have a little bot that searches for the brightest light source that it can find.

Next a sunrise alarm clock that runs on your computer...

And one that simply uses LED's.
http://www.electronics-lab.com/blog/?p=12663

Finally a lamp that looks like a setting sun Designed by Natalia Rumyantseva of Russia.

Art that plays with it's viewers...

These small robotic sculptures are rife with whimsy and humor. I would like to incorporate a human element into my work as well. Something that is unexpected and makes people smile...

Drinkspiration...

There's nothing like some good old fashioned drinkspiration. Here are a few cocktail inspired electronics projects that I find intriguing.

Ambient Light

Found this nifty little gadget today that mimics the ambient light in a video or still image on a screen and glows with that same color from behind the screen. It's even smart enough to know what part of the screen has what color on it and can display different colors at the same time.

I think this could be used in some creative way beyond simple ambient lighting.

Also, this computer controlled LED light panel is intriguing.