Philo has developed a new NTX LEGO sensor that is worth taking a look at.

“I built this proof of concept of a light barrier using NXT light sensor and an optic fiber. Any small object passing between the end of the fiber and light sensor phototransistor can be easily detected, even if they have different color or reflectivity.

The fiber I used comes from the RIS 2.0 kit, but similar ones can also be found in some ExoForce sets. The fiber is maintained in front of the LED and the other end is routed to face the sensor. You must take care to avoid any gap between the connector holding the fiber and the sensor to prevent direct light bleeding from LED to phototransistor. The fiber must be applied on the LED for best light coupling. The LED light is greatly attenuated by the fiber (the red glow proves that!). If you use the barrier in bright ambient light, you must shield it properly! ”

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Nuxie1 did a great job on this PIC based USB project board. I am very impressed by the Eagle 3D plugin that was used to create the image above.

“This design uses the Microchip PIC 18F2450 or 18F2550 USB enabled microcontroller. The total parts cost is around $15 including the microcontroller for a single board. The board features a USB port that can be used with a bootloader for easy programming. It is designed to use a 20MHz crystal. Two switches are included, for MCLR and RC0. Five analog inputs are brought out (AN0-AN4) which can be used to read analog sensors, as well as the two CCP ports which can be used to control servos or other devices. A user LED is built in, using RA4. The onboard USART ports are brought out to a three pin header which can be used to talk to other microcontrollers, or to an RS232 device with a MAX232 level converter. The whole of PORTB is brought out to a header, as well as a pair of power headers. An ICSP header rounds out the board for programming the PIC.”

If you have some holiday money burning a hole in your pocket Dynomighty has just the thing. I have never seen like it before!

“The incredible strength of these permanent magnets must be seen to be believed. Their force is so strong that under normal use the jewelry will stay on during normal daily activity. However, common sense rules apply; do not wear your jewelry under extreme conditions such as athletic activities.

They are so strong that you can remove a few pieces, hold them in your hand, and move them around from underneath with the open ends of the rest of the jewelry. If they do fall off the pieces won’t go very far and they will most often hold together in groups.”

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Check out this cool pen, I know it’s for kids but there is some serious technology in there! You can get your own here.

“Pretty fly for an educational toy! The Fly Pentop Computer is the wave of the future–today. So…what is it? It’s an electronic pen with a brain (a built-in computer processor) and a recorded voice. Tweens (the targeted market) use a fat pen with a tiny optical scanner near the point to draw words, pictures, or codes that the computer reads and responds to. So for example, one can draw a calculator and tap numbers to help figure out algebra homework or how many weeks’ worth of allowance will buy another cool FLYware cartridge. With the pen kids can also keep track of schedules (much like a PDA), learn geography, play games, translate languages, and actually lay down tracks on keyboards and drums!”

Via: TechEBlog

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Check out this disco ball, it is powered by a CD player motor. Similar to this one, but spins by itself.

“Here is my version of the LED Disco Ball. Its Completely portable can either be hung or screwed to the roof. It runs on 3AA batteries and has a group of gears from a CD player laser.

Parts List:
-3AAs
-Metal Fujicolor Negative Film Control Strips Container
-2 UV LEDs
-2 White LEDs
-2 Blue LEDs
-Motor + Gear system from a CD player
-Switch
-Wires ”

If you are ever thinking about making your own voice recognition system, this project would make a great starting point.

” Firstly, we looked at the speech recognition algorithm to understand the implementation. We then prepared the microphone circuit, and then proceeded to start sampling and generate the digital data for the speech. Once we have the data, we started writing the code based on Tor’s speech recognition algorithm. We also wrote the digital filters in assembly code to save the number of cycles necessary for the sampling rate of the speech, which is at 4K/second. Afterwards, we analyzed the output of the filters to recognize which word was spoken. Finally, we added an LCD for better user interface to signal if the password spoken is correct or not.

The project has not met our expectations fully, as we initially specified that the system would be able to recognize a sentence as a password. But we are more than happy that it is able to recognize a word as the password by more than 80%-90% of the time, depending on the choice of passwords. There is a training procedure that need to be implemented, which is an added feature to increase the accuracy of the security system. However, the system can still be used without training. In this case, there is a maximum of 5 words only.”

If you have a BMW I would suggest getting a good alarm system. Have a look at the video to see why. Companies like Zieh Fix are keeping car manufacturers on their toes.

Via: NewLaunches and Suprcars