Hasta La Gadget!

At first, you might think what you’re looking at is just a cool illuminated wall sculpture. Well it is that, but it’s actually more. It’s actually a weather forecaster with a tangible user interface.

This interactive LED art was assembled by Instructables contributor and Parsons design student Adiel Fernandez. He built the wall unit using a set of three sconces found at CB2, rigged with a digitally-addressable LED scrip, cut into pieces that he placed into the sconces. His original concept was to simply rig the sconce with flickering LEDs to make them look like candles without the inconvenience of actual candles and flame, but ultimately ended up with a much more interactive pieces.

The wall sculpture is controlled by a small acrylic cube with icons on each side. Inside the cube is a gyroscope, accelerometer, XBee radio and lithium-polymer battery. Rotating the cube to face an icon upwards will switch the LEDs between 6 modes, described in the words of its creator as follows:

• Power:  “The cube is normally off to save power and will not recognize any commands or orientation. By having the power icon facing up and shaking the cube, the cube is now awake, will pulse the inner light that shines through the icons, and will recognize which side is facing up to allow other modes to be accessed. By spinning the cube while its on and the power side is up, a fun rainbow display is turned on and off.”
• Flame: “When the cube is on and the flame side is facing up, the lights in the sconces will glow and flicker like real candle flames (a little difficult to see in the video). By rotating the cube clockwise, the number of candles lit are incremented and likewise, rotating it counter clockwise decreases the number of lights lit.”
• High Temperature: “Having this side face up while the cube is on will display the high temperature of the day in red light. The lights will display the first digit of the temperature on the left side by lighting up the number of lights equivalent to that digit. The lights then pause then display the second digit of the temperature on the right side. For example, if the temp. is 47 degrees (like in the video), the lights will show 4 lights on the left, pause, then display 7 lights on the right.”
• Low Temperature: “Similar to the low temp side, this side will show the low temperature of the day in a cool cyan hue.”
• Precipitation (snow/rain): “This will display the percent chance of precipitation similar to how the other temperatures are displayed in blue. Its a little difficult to tell the difference between the cyan and blue in the video but easier in person.”
• Travel (plane around the world): “For a bit of whimsy, I decided to make the bottom of the cube display the temperature of some fantasy destination set by the user in green light. In this case it’s set to Honolulu, Hawaii, hopefully making it easier to bare the cold winter with hopes of a future vacation.”

Here’s a look at the controller cube in action:

And here’s a brief demo of the wall as it lights up:

At this point, the temperature data is hard-coded into the system, but Adiel plans to get it wired up to an internet data source soon. There aren’t too many more details on the build available, but you can see what there is over on Instructables.

How many times have you found yourself facing the wrath of your partner after forgetting your anniversary? The reality is that some people are just more forgetful than others. It doesn’t mean that you love them or care for them any less; it most likely means that you have a pretty crappy memory.

The solution is to jot it down on your planner or set an alarm on your phone so you won’t ever forget the big day. Or you can get one of these Remember Rings instead.

The Remember Ring is more than just a band that you’re supposed to wear around your finger. It’s programmable so you can set it to heat up when your anniversary date approaches. When we say ‘heat up’, we do mean it in the literal sense. The ring is powered by patent-pending HotSpot technology that will raise the ring’s temperature a few degrees so you won’t ever forget what day it is.

They’re pretty expensive though, since they’re being sold by Alaska Jewelry for $760 (USD). Maybe the price will be enough motivation for you to just put the date in your smartphone.

[via Bit Rebels]

Gamers familiar with the Ultima video game series have likely heard of its award-winning designer and creator, Richard “Lord British” Garriott. Garriott has launched his latest project, a new fantasy role-playing game called Shroud of the Avatar, and is seeking to fund development via Kickstarter. The game designer and his team want to reinvent the classic role-playing fantasy experience using state-of-the-art tools and technology.

Garriott promises that the game will focus on what made the Ultima series so popular by creating a world which allows the adventurer to explore and discover new places, and focusing on role-playing elements. Players will be able to choose the life of a homesteader within the safety of established villages and cities or on the wild frontier. Interestingly, the developers promise that players won’t be limited to the class of player they selected the beginning of the game.

Players will venture into a persistent shared world where real estate has real value. You’ll even have to pay taxes regularly on the homes you purchase. While you can get in on the digital download of the game for $30(USD), fans that spend enough money will be able to go tax-free, assuming they pledge enough money. The minimum cost for tax-free housing in the game is $500. Insanely, nine people have pledged $10,000 or more to the game already landing themselves Lord of the Manor status.

I’m a big fan of Philips Hue LED bulbs. In fact, I’ve got two rooms of my house outfitted with the bulbs, and continue to add more. There’s something just so cool about walking into my home theater, pulling out my iPhone, and changing the colors in the room to set the mood for a movie or video game session.

But while the hardware is extraordinary, if there’s one complaint about the Hue, it’s the relatively limited smartphone app that Philips provides. Sure, it gets the job done, but opening up the platform to other developers will only result in more and better apps. Well, I’m happy to say that’s exactly what Philips has done.

Philips today announced its long-awaited software developer program for the Hue. The developer program provides open APIs, development guides and an iOS SDK, so you can easily make your own smartphone and tablet apps to control the bulbs.

While there’s already a growing community that’s been playing with the bulbs for several months now, it’s great to have officially-supported docs and tools from Philips themselves. Having these tools in hand should enable the creation of applications which can change bulb colors to music, video and other ideas which I haven’t even thought of yet. Heck, with enough Hue bulbs and the right app developer, you could probably make a (ridiculously expensive) video wall using the bulbs.

Developers interested in creating their own applications for the Hue can check out the developer platform at developers.meethue.com.

For those of you who didn’t jump on the Hue bandwagon when it first came out due to availability issues, they’re once again readily available from the Apple Store. The 3-bulb and bridge starter kit sells for $199.95 (USD), and additional bulbs sell for $59. Now that the SDK is available, I’m anxiously awaiting additional hardware from Philips. I’d love to see different lamp sizes and full-color wall dimmers (and lower prices) if you’re listening.

The Microsoft Kinect has been hacked to do all sorts of things, and while some of the hacks are for the good of humankind, most are pretty superfluous. But the Microsoft Research Cambridge team has recently put together a Kinect demo which could provide neurosurgeons with interactive 3D visuals which could help them save lives in the operating room.

The prototype system shows how a Kinect could help provide augmented reality visuals which overlay the patient’s MRI or CAT scan data with the real world. This would allow doctors to move around the patients head and visualize problem areas non-invasively, and to help them map out a better action plan before starting surgery.

The system uses a touchscreen tablet with a Kinect duct taped to the back of it, tied to a custom application through the Kinect Fusion API. In the video below shot by IEEE Spectrum, Microsoft Research’s Ben Glocker demonstrates how the system works:

While this particular system isn’t exactly the most portable, it’s still quite impressive, and you could see how combining Kinect tech with some sort of head-mounted display could really change the way surgery is performed. Now if only they could work out a way that you don’t have to lie in that noisy and claustrophobic MRI machine.