Hasta La Gadget!

A proof-of-concept vending machine shows how we can dispense with cash for everyday purchases, skipping credit and debit cards altogether and going straight to electronic transfer.

The vending machine uses QR codes, PayPal, a smartphone camera and Twitter. And, to complete the geek-buzzword bingo checklist, the hardware is based in part on Arduino, an open source hardware platform.

“We’re experimenting with ways of taking PayPal payments beyond the web,” PayPal Labs’ Ray Tanaka said. At the PayPal X Innovate 2010 developers’ conference, he showed off a gumball machine that lets people use their smartphone to scan a barcode instead of fishing for change.

Tanaka and his team put together their gumball machine using an ordinary mechanical vending machine, an Arduino processor, a WiShield and a few other smartly chosen basic parts.

Scanning the QR barcode sets the gumball machine in motion. Then the customer gets a Twitter notification that their PayPal payment has gone through and how much they’ve been charged. On the merchant side, Tanaka showed off an instant payment-notification system using an LCD display.

Candy is cute and “gives good demo” (as Steve Jobs puts it), but I can easily imagine 101 even better uses for a simple electronic payment system like this where cash is short and speed is essential. Here’s a short list to get you started:

• parking garages
• public transit
• toll booths
• grocery checkout
• gas stations

In short, anywhere you need to be on the move and would rather not whip out your wallet.

Story via the Arduino Blog and Helablog.

Follow us for real-time tech news and ideas: Tim Carmody and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

See Also:

• Will the Internet of Things Be Open or Closed?
• Spime Watch: Shipping Containers and the Future Internet of Things …
• Laser Etched QR Codes: Digital Graffiti For Gadgets
• Amazon iPhone App Adds Barcode Scanning
• Belly Up to the Bar Code

We can’t all have heads as amazing as Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, but this holiday season we can have pumpkins that are every bit as blinky. Mike Szczys has posted a detailed walkthrough of how to create the above Jack-o-creation at Hack a Day, which features a 5 x 14 matrix of LEDs on the front that can be programmed to light up in various ways, like the Knight Rider sweep or to simply scroll the message “HAPPY HALLOWEEN.” That’s shown in the video below, but hopefully version 2.0 can manage the tricks displayed in the second embed that’s also waiting for you after the break.

Continue reading LED pumpkin would be perfect for your next Sleepy Hollow dance party (video)

LED pumpkin would be perfect for your next Sleepy Hollow dance party (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who would win in a fight between Luke Skywalker and Wolverine*? If you have an answer at the ready with a needlessly articulate argument to back it up, you’ve probably got quite a Halloween costume lined up. If that costume happens to be star of this year’s early-summer eponymous sequel, Iron Man, you might want to click on over to instructables where you can find several DIY Arc Reactors that no Iron Man costume would be complete without.

Some are ridiculously intricate and complicated. Some are more approachable for those without engineering degrees. You can even purchase a DIY kit to get started on yours with all the parts included. But I’m of the opinion, if you want to stay true to the costume, you have to lock yourself down in your basement or garage and make one for yourself.

Take a look at one simple video walk-through after the jump.

* the answer is Luke Skywalker because he could use The Force to pin Wolverine down and then slice him up with his lightsaber–if it can cut through the space metals on the Death Star, it can surely make butter of Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton. Even if it couldn’t, enough damage could be inflicted on Wolverine’s fleshy parts that he would not be able to recover.

Matt Richardson’s friend Lauren wanted a device to hold down the down arrow and physically scroll through Google Reader, like a sustain pedal on a piano. Matt built it for her using an old USB keyboard, wire, solder and a little DIY invention.

It’s surprising we don’t see foot pedals more often in mainstream desktop computing. They’re a natural, well-established interface: besides analog tech like pianos, drums, bikes or a spinning wheel, think of cars, table saws and electric guitars.

If you’re curious, there are plenty of commercial USB foot pedals available, mostly targeted for disabled users or industry-specific uses. For example, they’re extremely popular in professional digital voice transcription, often coming bundled with transcription or dictation software. These usually have three controls: play/pause (center), rewind (left) and fast-forward (right).

Musicians, too, continue to experiment with foot pedals: we’ve written about AirTurn’s Bluetooth sheet-music turner for iPad, with a special eye towards its potential for disabled users.

Other USB foot pedals are extraordinarily versatile and programmable. But because they aren’t a universal accessory marketed to mainstream users like a mouse or keyboard, all foot pedals tend to be expensive and often highly tailored to individual users’ needs.

Building a foot pedal yourself using a keyboard’s guts is one way to solve this problem. But I can’t help but wonder what a determined hacker could put together with an Arduino board, a weekend and a little imagination.

Google Reader Pedal: hacking a USB keyboard [Boing Boing]

See Also:

• iPad Sheet-Music Foot-Switch is a Real Page-Turner
• Bluetooth Sheet Music Turner Could Help Readers With Disabilities …
• Toe-Mouse for Foot-Controlled Computing
• Build It. Share It. Profit. Can Open Source Hardware Work?
• Why Arduino Is a Hit With Hardware Hackers
• The Design, Art, Technology and History of Arduino
• Just What Is An Arduino, And Why Do you Want One?

Continue reading dSolar panels for Mindstorms bring green power to your Lego creations

dSolar panels for Mindstorms bring green power to your Lego creations originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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