Hasta La Gadget!

Ben Heck is well known as a modder extraordinaire, and this time he doesn’t let anyone down by cobbling together a pocket PC from an array of harvested parts, including a chatpad from an Xbox 360 controller.

The BASIC pocket PC uses the aforementioned chatpad, an Arduino Uno and a Hitachi LCD display. The handheld computer runs an appropriately tiny version of the BASIC programming language called TinyBASIC. Thanks to its built-in interface, this Franken-computer allows Ben to control real-world objects – for example, Heck uses it to control a servo-operated ghost on a pinball playing field.

Check out the full show where Heck shows you how he built the device and to see what it can do.

The whole thing is pretty neat, but you’ll need to brush up on your electronics skills if you want to be able to make one of these for yourself.

[via Ubergizmo]

Chad Ruble’s mom has aphasia, a condition she acquired because of a stroke that she had 12 years ago. Like many other people with aphasia, Chad’s mom has a hard time reading and writing, so she can’t use email the way the rest of us do. But with the help of Chad and a Microsoft Kinect, she can now send simple emails.

Chad made a “visual dashboard” that shows a range of emoticons as well as signal bars to help her mom indicate the intensity of those emotions, e.g. there’s an icon for happiness, and the signal bars let her specify how happy she is.

He then used a Kinect and a program he based on open source code to track his mom’s hand as well as to generate and send the email.

It’s okay. I cried a bit too. Wipe your tears and head to Chad’s blog for more details on his hack. I wonder if the dashboard would be easier to use via a touchscreen device.

[via CNET]

A few days ago we saw a desktop computer with tablet features. Navarre Bartz is working on a tablet with desktop PC features, namely a swappable processor.

Bartz entered his concept into Instructables and Jack Daniel’s Independence Project. Bartz’ concept is based on the Toradex Colibri, an ARM-based all-in-one module with an nVidia Tegra 2 CPU. The idea is to have the CPU module plug into a baseboard where all the other components are installed. When a newer processor comes out, you simply open up the tablet, unplug the CPU module and replace it with the newer one, similar to upgrading parts on a desktop computer.

Aside from the CPU, Bartz also mentioned on YouTube that he was considering making the Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi components upgradeable as well. That’s a far cry from today’s tablets, where the only hardware upgrade that can be done comes in the form of swapping SD or microSD cards to expand storage capacity, and even then not all tablets have this feature.

[via Liliputing via Ubergizmo]

The newest model of the Parrot AR.Drone can be controlled via the iPad. Fancy eh? Well, researchers at Zhejiang University have come up with a way to control the quadcopter using a person’s brain waves. That’s telekinesis, Kyle.

Or not. Even though the dude above looks like he’s got a Professor X thing going on, the real magic isn’t in his DNA but on a PC. An EEG wired to his head reads his signals, which is processed on his laptop, which in turn wirelessly sends the equivalent command to the drone. The goal is to help disabled people be more independent and to be able to explore their surroundings, but there’s no reason normal people can’t enjoy this technology as well.

Combine the FlyingBuddy 2 with the ShockDrone and you have one hell of a party game.

[via The Verge]

Hey Range, you wished for a taser-equipped quadrotor drone right? Hack a Day has served as your genie. The folks who run the site managed to modify a Parrot AR.Drone to deliver a shock on contact.

Hack a Day ran two strips of aluminum tape along the outline of the indoor variant of the Parrot AR.Drone. The tapes were connected to the capacitor of a disposable camera. When the parallel strips are connected – like when they come into contact with human skin – the circuit completes and electricity flows through the tapes, resulting in this:

That’s right: the current will turn you into a white dude’s forearm. Seriously though this thing can pack a punch, but fortunately not a Fist of the North Star caliber punch. Watch it chase and tase in the video below:

Head to Shock Hack a Day to find out how to build your own TaserDrone.