Circuit Stickers: Peel & Stick & Light

Here’s a fun kit that you can use to make simple electronics, even wearable ones. Circuit Stickers are just that – electronics with adhesive backing. The star of the kit are the LED stickers. Put them on a conductive surface – wire, foil, conductive thread or fabric etc. – connect a power source at one end and you have a light show.

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If you want to add an element of interactivity to the LEDs, you can also get the Effects Stickers, the Sensor & Microcontroller Sticker or both. The Effects Sticker modifies the LEDs, making them blink, fade, twinkle or pulsate like a heartbeat. The Sensor & Microcontroller Sticker on the other hand adds a light sensor and a sound sensor to the mix. It also has a trigger that can turn on your Circuit Stickers for five seconds at a time.

Pledge at least $25 (USD) on Crowd Supply to get a Circuit Stickers Kit. Aside from the electronics themselves, each kit will also come with additional materials such as copper tape, coin cell batteries and binder clips so you can experiment out of the box. I think the Electric Paint Pen complements the kit well.

[via Boing Boing]

Verve Sensor Kit Emulates Mouse & Keyboard: The World is Your Controller

One of last year’s most successful Kickstarter-funded projects was the MaKey MaKey, a device that allowed you to input keyboard commands to a computer using everyday objects. A new USB device called the Verve is similar to the MaKey MaKey, but it’s more versatile. Using a variety of sensors, the Verve lets you trigger mouse and keyboard input using real-world actions or events.

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The Verve consists of a central console and seven types of sensors that plug into the console. It also has a companion program that has both Windows and OS X versions. The program is used to map the input from a sensor to a mouse or keyboard key, as well as to set the threshold – i.e. the intensity of the input – to which the mapped key will be triggered. For instance, you can use attach the motion sensor to a sword and make your videogame character attack when you swing the sword. Or you can leave the motion sensor by your cubicle and make your computer show your desktop when someone passes by. Because you’re not hiding anything there.

Pledge at least $99 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Verve kit as a reward. The kit will come with one of each sensor along with all the cables you need. I’m a bit conflicted with the potential of the Verve. On one hand, the variety of sensors means it encourages a creative and diverse array of input options. On the other hand, the one-to-one correspondence of a sensor to a key makes it quite cumbersome to setup anything beyond a simple command.

The MaKey MaKey is so easy to use because it gave you several inputs just by plugging in one board. The Verve gives you seven sensors, but each sensor can only be mapped to one key. What modern software uses just one key? From what I understand it also does not support key combinations (e.g. ctrl+X). And what if you want to use more than one unit of a particular sensor? It’s amazing how cheap and user-friendly sensors have become, but I’m not sure if the Verve will be a legitimately useful product or a mere curio.

[via DVICE]

Triggertrap Redsnap Modular Camera Trigger: If It Can Sense It, You Can Shoot It

A couple of years ago Triggertrap released its namesake device, an electronic camera trigger that activates your camera based on a variety of inputs. Recently the company launched a Kickstarter for an improved camera trigger, which they’re calling Redsnap. It’s modular, which not only makes it compact but versatile as well.

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The Redsnap has a base block that you can connect to up to two sensors at once. The base block handles long exposure and time lapse shots. At launch, the Redsnap will have the following sensors: a laser sensor (with a built-in laser), a light sensor, a passive infrared sensor and a sound sensor. Triggertrap says they will release more sensors in the future.

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Because you can connect two sensors at once, you can set up shots for a variety of conditions. For instance, you can rig your camera to shoot only when the light sensor and the sound sensor are both triggered. Or you can connect two of the same sensor if you wish. The Redsnap also has three trigger outputs, so you can connect multiple cameras or flashes and have them all go off at the same time.

Pledge at least £35 (~$57 USD) on Kickstarter to receive the base Triggertrap Redsnap kit as a reward – which is capable of shooting time-lapse photos. A kit with the light sensor goes for £60 (~$97 USD), and a complete high-speed kit with laser and sound sensors is £90 ($145 USD). Check out all of the available bundles over on their fundraising page.

Zepp 3D motion sensor helps improve tennis, baseball, and golf swings

There are sensors on the market that are designed specifically to help golfers improve their swing. Earlier this year we mentioned one called the GolfSense designed specifically to interface with your smartphone help you get better at golf. A new product has surfaced from a company called Zepp Labs with versions designed to help golfers, […]

iPhone 5s motion sensor reading problems surface

There have been grumbles in the Applesphere since the iPhone 5s launch from some owners who have experienced problems with the handset’s onboard motion sensors, including the gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass. To test the nature of the complaints, the folks over at Gizmodo broke out a leveling tool and compass, among other things, revealing that […]

Microsoft explains how it built a better Kinect, boosted accuracy without sacrificing performance (video)

The Xbox One’s improved Kinect device is looking like an enormous leap ahead of its predecessor, but getting it there wasn’t easy. Designing it took a joint-effort between Microsoft’s research division and the Architecture and Silicon Management (ASM) shop, according to Redmond’s TechNet blog. It wasn’t enough that the designers had to address the original Kinect’s shortcomings either, adding new features presented plenty of new hurdles to overcome. Take the new sensor’s HD camera upgrade, for example. That wider field of view may make using Kinect in a real living room more feasible, but the enhanced fidelity made it harder for engineers to keep smaller objects (like fingers) from disappearing into the background. The team has outlined some of the camera’s new tricks, like ambient light canceling and an improved color camera, in a pair of demo videos. You’ll find both of those, plus a look at how the Kinect processes 6.5 million pixels per second without the Xbox One missing a beat, at the source link below.

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Source: TechNet (Microsoft)

The New Kinect Will Understand Two People Talking Simultaneously

The New Kinect Will Understand Two People Talking Simultaneously

If you weren’t convinced that the new Kinect was already amazing, here’s something that should change your mind: the new device will be able to discern between two people talking at the same time.

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Toshiba’s new dual camera module brings ‘deep focus’ imaging to smartphones

Toshiba's new dual camera brings deep focus imaging to smartphonesRemember when dual camera modules on smartphones were all the rage? Toshiba is bringing them back — only this time with technology that you’re much more likely to use. Its new module uses two 5-megapixel cameras to record depth and images at the same time, producing a “deep focus” picture where everything is sharp. The technique offers a Lytro-like ability to refocus, even after you’ve taken the shot; it also provides gesture control and very fast digital autofocusing. You’ll have to wait a while before you’re snapping deep focus vacation photos, though. Toshiba doesn’t expect to mass produce the sensors until April, and finished products will likely come later.

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Via: Fareastgizmos

Source: Toshiba

HP ENVY17 Leap Motion SE first to market with embedded micro sensor

This week the folks at Leap Motion have made clear their intention to dive ever-deeper into the world of high-powered electronics, hitting a real-deal HP notebook here for starters. This is the first of what may be a series of HP/Leap Motion connections, given their announcement of co-development earlier this year. This is the HP […]

Nix Color Sensor Copies Colors from Physical Objects: Real Life Eyedropper Tool

One of my earliest posts here was about the Color Picker, a concept for a pen that let you copy colors from your surroundings and then doodle with that color. Matthew Sheridan brings us a step closer to that magical device with the Nix Color Sensor. It’s basically half of the Color Picker pen, letting you copy colors from physical objects.

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Actually the Nix was designed to do more than just copy colors. With the help of its complementary desktop and mobile apps, Nix can save and place notes on your captured swatches, show you the RGB, HSL, HSV, Lab, XYZ, HTML, or CMYK values of those colors and even look for a paint store that sells the matching paint.

Pledge at least $99 CAD (~$96 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Nix sensor as a reward. The iOS and Android apps will be bundled with the sensor; I’m not sure if the Windows and Mac apps will be free as well. I wonder if Pixy can be modded to work like Nix.

[via MacTrast]