hack a day: digital cameras

Saturday 2009/11/21

Date/Time	Thread
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:00:26 +0000	Multixylophoniomnibus [Ania] wrote in to let us know her team had finished the Multixylophoniomnibus and that they have posted an extensive writeup about it. We covered this augmented xylophone when it was still in development at the beginning of this month. Originally they wanted to use mallets wrapped in tinfoil as switches that close when they [...]
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:51:17 +0000	Tube prototyping station [Gio] enjoys using vacuum tubes in his projects. He designs the circuits using a CAD program but was finding that there is no substitute for actually building a prototype before heading to a final design. To make this process easier, he built his own tube prototyping station. At the top of the board he’s got three [...]
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:52:53 +0000	Remote uses no batteries How often do you change the batteries in your television remote control? Yeah, basically never. But that’s a tribute to how efficient the device is and not a reason to overlook this development. NEC is showing off a remote control that uses no batteries. Power is generated using the piezo effect that occurs when a [...]
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:31:55 +0000	USB accelerometer controller As you can see above, there is no wiimote in that accessory steering wheel. There is, instead, a home-made accelerometer controller that connects to the pc via USB. Based around a PIC 18F2550 and a 2 axis accelerometer, this device is detected by windows as a standard controller. The schematic and source code are available [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:43:24 +0000	Axe your camera (again!) [Maurice] let us know that his latest photography tool for hackers, the Camera Axe 3.0, is now available. The original allowed you to trigger a high-speed flash and camera from a multitude of sensors, including light and sound. The new one does all that, but also: allows multiple cameras or multiple flashes, clean up of [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:00:48 +0000	Complete the maze, get a gumball This neat accelerometer controlled marble maze adds a level of fun to retrieving a gum ball. You have to first navigate the maze using a controller that has a dual axis accelerometer in it to control the angle of the platform. Though that does look like a wii accessory, there is no wiimote in there. Only after you [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:24 +0000	Another stationary bike VR rig [Shingo] shared his implementation of a stationary bike as a virtual reality interface. This is similar to the Google Street View setup we covered a week ago but goes a few steps further. They patched into the bike computer to pick up rotation of the bicycle wheel and added an accelerometer for directional control. This [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:47:44 +0000	AVR8 virtual processor on FPGA [Jack] wrote in to let us know about a project that creates a virtual microprocessor core based on the ATmega103 by using a Field-Programmable Gate Array. Great, we thought. Here’s another rather esoteric project like the NES on a FPGA, but what’s the motivation behind it? We asked [Jack] and he provided several scenarios where [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:09:25 +0000	When an axe isn’t enough [Chris] wanted a guitar with a keyboard but didn’t want a keytar. Like any good hacker he took a cheap guitar and a small keyboard and introduced them to each other. He moved the control knobs to make room for the keyboard and added the control circuitry from the keyboard to the top of the [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:48 +0000	Uzebox in an NES controller [David Cranor] has managed to fit a fully working Uzebox system into an old NES controller. Uzebox, an open source gaming platform based on the ATmega 644 and an AD725 NTSC encoder, is one of a couple systems that are becoming more and more widespread and accessible. There are a number of ready-to-go Uzebox kits [...]
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:56:18 +0000	(Mini) Earthquake in your living room Today we stumbled upon [jimthree's] Seismic Reflector while looking at projects that employ the Processing language we mentioned a few days ago. Utilizing a Boarduino and some vibration motors from a game controller, the Seismic Reflector does just as its name implies – rattles itself around whenever there is an earthquake. While this does seem [...]
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:59:09 +0000	Outerspace: reactive robotics While Outerspace may not have an extremely useful function, being an art installation, we really enjoyed reading through the build information. Basically, Outerspace is supposed to appear to be curious, exploring it’s surroundings and reacting to your contact. We do enjoy a little bit of personality in robots, so this seems like it could be [...]
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:06:25 +0000	Look ma, no wires [Robotkid249] details how to build a wireless power transmission system. This is similar to the commercial applications we have seen in a TED talk as well is in a Sony prototype. Power is fed to a ring made of magnet wire. A smaller loop is attached to the system that you want to power and [...]
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:03:27 +0000	PIC powered AVR programmer [Texane] wrote in to let us know he has implemented AVR ISP programming using a PIC microcontroller. He wrote some code for an 18F4550 that uses the STK500 standard for In System Programming. This means that his hardware is compatible with AVRdude, the open source AVR programming software. There has long been an argument over [...]
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:42:28 +0000	Argh, thar be a big wheel If you’re marooned on a desert island, you want to have a Professor who can build useful items out of coconuts. [LostMachine] is one of those guys, and he’s currently building a land-loving pirate ship. The wacky vehicle will use the giant wheel above to propel the vessel while the captain sits comfortably in the [...]