Hasta La Gadget!

Computers and sensors are quickly decreasing in cost and size, making it easier than ever before to build smart gadgets or robots. From accelerometers to thermal sensors, electronics nowadays can detect and record a variety of events and objects in their surroundings. Here’s one more sensor to add to your robot overlord-in-training. It’s called Pixy, a camera that identifies objects through color.

Pixy was made by Charmed Labs and embedded systems experts from Carnegie Mellon University. It’s actually the team’s fifth version of a smart and low-cost vision sensor, which they previously called the CMUcam. What separates the Pixy from other image sensors is that it only sends a small amount of data and it has its own microprocessor. These traits make it possible to integrate the Pixy even to microcontrollers like the Arduino.

Pixy identifies objects using “a hue-based color filtering algorithm”, which supposedly makes it consistent under different lighting conditions. It can also identify hundreds of objects at once. The image below is a screenshot of PixyMon, an open source debugging program for Pixy.

As you’ll see in the video below, Pixy can also track moving objects. That’s because it updates once every 20ms, fast enough to keep up with an object moving at 30mph. You can then gather Pixy’s data through UART serial, SPI, I2C, digital out, or analog out.

Pixy can be taught to “remember” up to seven different objects, but you can expand its memory by using color codes. Color codes are simply stickers or strips of paper with two or more different colors. Color codes increase Pixy’s color-coded encyclopedia from seven to several thousands.

Pledge at least $59 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Pixy and an Arduino cable as a reward.

What will you build with Pixy? A security camera that texts you when your cat goes out? A color-seeking water bomb? A clown-loving machine? A drone that follows you around? A box of crayons that can tell you what color you picked? A weapon that works only on people wearing red? A LEGO sorter that can tell you which pieces are missing from your collection? A camera that automatically takes pictures of the sunset? A wearable assistant for colorblind people? A ticker that counts which Premier League referee hands out the most yellow cards? A useless machine that won’t turn itself off if you’re wearing the right color? Are the things I’m saying even possible?

Several years ago we saw Alvin Aronson’s minimalist timepiece, which used wood and ceramic to replicate the seven segment digits commonly used in LCD and LED displays.

Instructables member alstroemeria took the idea further, creating a papercraft version of Aronson’s clock.

Alstroemeria used layers of cardstock, an Arduino Uno, 28 servos and a servo controller to make a cheaper and biodegradable version of Aronson’s clock.

Alstroemeria said he’ll soon post a video showing his clock in action. But time’s a wastin’, so go ahead and check out his build process on Instructables.

[via Evil Mad Scientist]

Earlier this month we saw a car with a joystick shift lever. It looks cool, but it doesn’t have any additional function. Ford engineer Zachary Nelson made a more high-tech shift lever mod that’s geared towards newbie drivers. It’s a shift knob that vibrates to tell you when to shift gears.

The shift knob is based on the Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller. Using an Android app and the OpenXC Vehicle Interface, the knob “monitors the vehicle’s speed, RPM and accelerator pedal position. Based on this information, the application calculates and then indicates to the driver when he or she should shift by vibrating the shift knob.” Additionally, the knob can be set to prioritize speed or fuel economy. Zach used a motor from an Xbox 360 controller to make the knob vibrate and then designed and 3D printed the knob’s case. It was then installed onto the manual shift lever from a Ford Mustang.

Start your browser’s engine and head to OpenXC to find out how to make a vibrating shift knob. Or not.

[via Wired via Gearfuse]

If you’ve ever wanted to make a cellphone for yourself out of parts from the likes of hack-friendly Aduino, now is the time. Though you’re not going to be winning any beauty contests with this machine’s aesthetic, you’ll certainly be able to feel proud of your construction skills by the end of it all. Say hello to the first home-made smartphone – if you can call it that.

Through Hack-A-Day comes news of this massive lump of an accomplishment, with Instructables making it clear for the public what they’ve got to do to make it all happen for themselves. The most powerful bit of this whole project is the idea that you’ll not need to be an engineering genius to get it all running – it’s relatively simple!

Once you’ve made this oddity, gestures and single-taps to the device’s touchscreen will bring up abilities like texting and simple phone calls. Right-swipes bring you phone calls, double right-swipes bring you back to your home screen. At the moment you’ll be working with a display of the time and date as well as access to text messaging and voice phone calls – but that’s all you need, right?

This system does not yet work with full Arduino Phone Apps access quite yet, but it very well could in the near future. At the moment you’ll also need to have access to a 3D printer to make the case, otherwise the parts should be relatively easy to access through a variety of DIY-parts sources. Have at it!

DIY Arduino cellphone made of off-the-shelf parts is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s really amazing how today’s technology enables us to build complex gadgets on our own. Just take a look at Instructables member Ye Xiaobo’s fully functioning cell phone. It can send and receive phone calls and text messages, and it even has a touchscreen. How it looks – and costs – is another thing altogether.

The phone is based on the Arduino Uno. It has a 2.8″ TFT Touch Shield for a screen, a GPRS Shield to connect to GSM and GPRS networks, a rechargeable Li-ion battery and a 3D printed housing.

Put your MacGyver jacket on and head to Instructables to find out how to make your own cell phone. Xiaobo also put together a one-stop parts list on Seeed. Here’s the funny part: the phone will cost you $173.10 (USD) to build, excluding the cost of printing the housing. Oh, and then you need to pay for phone service.

[via Hack A Day]