Rockband is lots of fun. What can be more fun than rocking out with Rockband on your iPhone? Well the answer is making a robot that is better than you at it! This robot uses sensors to look for the blips streaming down the screen and cool simulated fingers to jam on the touchscreen.  The Arduino code is available so you can make your own iPhone Rockband robot.

Thanks for the tip about this cool Make post John!

"The iPhone touch screen isn’t like most PDAs. It uses a capacitive touch screen. More info about that HERE. It would seem that the iPhone is looking for a finger sized touch, from living flesh. According to the link, the screen actually looks for changes in electrical current. I had some conductive foam laying around, its usually used for shipping sensitive electronics. If I put my finger behind the foam and pressed on the iphone screen, it works. If I used something non conductive, like a plastic pen, the foam would do nothing to the screen. My solution to this was to put thin copper wires into the foam (I also used these wires to attach the foam to the servos) the other end of the wires were wrapped around the handle of an exacto knife. When the Robot is playing the game I touch the handle of the exacto and the robot fingers are able to press the screen."

Who says you need a entire car to drive around in. This two seat car looks nice and comfortable. The only issue looks to be that it stops quite abruptly when reversing.

Thanks to Screen Sleuth for sponsoring the contest this week. They will be providing a $30 gift certificate so you can get some great swag over at Adafruit Industries. Screen Sleuth is there to save you money by listing all the best prices by various categories, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking specifically for Samsung HDTVs or only Best Buy TV deals.

"If you’re in the market for a new television set, then take a few minutes to browse around the Sleuth. If you’re looking to save money on your TV or get a big discount on the regular price of a TV then check out our listings. Screen Sleuth organizes TVs by screen size as well as by manufacturer, so honing in on the TV specs you are interested in takes only seconds. We think it’s the best way to pin-point the best TV deal easily."

This contest will run for one week (October 31 -  November 6, 2009) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it.

Please do not give the answer in the comments. 

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with "Name the Thing Contest" as the subject, and the message body consisting of:

• The name of the item in the above picture
• An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

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Added November 13, 2009

The item to guess was a Casio AL-1000 Programmable Calculator

The winner is  Eric B.  (There were 139 entries)

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Below is the prize. 

More pictures after the jump

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This Open Source Sentry Gun project is not as advanced as some of the Sentry Gun Projects that we have seen but it is something that can be built on and has the ability to become a robust platform. If this is something that you would like to contribute to why not contact the author and see how you can help.

Thanks Diederick

"What can you attach to your sentry as a dispenser? Anything that can attain its target in a straight line is better than anything that has a parabolic trajectory, this since the software doesn’t take distance and therefore trajectory into account. In addition that you will need a mother of a targeting algorithm in order to make this work you will also need to factor in distance and other environmental factors in order to attain your target, so slingshots, catapults or trebuchets are out. "

The folks at TV Clean sent in a cleaning system for us to review. It’s a cleaning device that is used to remove dirt and dust from your monitors and TVs. I have always been very careful when cleaning LCD monitors because unlike the old CRT ones then new flat screens are quite easy to damage.

The TV Clean comes housed in a clam shell which keeps the dust out when it isn’t in use. It is a two part system, one soft sticky rubber blue roller rolls on the screen you are cleaning and picks up the dirt. As this sticky roller comes in contact with the white collection roller in the rear it transfers the dirt onto an adhesive layer. I used it on 5 LCD monitors, one CRT monitor and a 50 inch plasma TV. All but one looked clean before I used the TV Clean on them so I was surprised to see that the white adhesive collection roller was full of dirt when I was done. The white adhesive collection roller that catches the dirt is has many layers, the dirty layer is simply peeled away. The only problem I had with the product is that the blue roller which un-clips from the main unit can become dislodged if too much pressure is placed on the unit when using it to clean. This happened once and the roller simply snapped back in place.

The kit came with a cloth that is used to clean fingerprints and other smudges from the screen. I only came across one small fingerprint and the cloth wiped it away with no effort.

If you are looking for a product that will keep the dust off your expensive new TV the TV Clean should be a good fit. 

Additional product information can be found here.

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Ian from Dangerous Prototypes has made a high tech Multi Color Remote Controlled LED Pumpkin. It uses a remote control to change the inside glow color. Schematics and code are provided so you can make your own.

Via: HG Forum.

"It uses a minimal PIC 18F2550 circuit that decodes the remote control signals and drives a ShiftBrite color changing LED module. The F2550 is a USB PIC with a USB bootloader, so it’s technically a USB upgradable pumpkin too. The color changing LED is a ShiftBrite module from Macetech.com. It’s driven by three PIC pins and powered by a 5volt supply."

Swiss designer Matthias Pugin has made a crazy clock called Switchital which is a Moving 7 Segment Digital Wall Clock that works by moving hidden magnets which arrange bars of 7 segment displays. At first I thought this was a design simulation but I think it’s real! I would like to have a look at the guts inside the clock and the controller that is an amazing choreographer.

EDIT: Matthias just got back to me. It’s currently a concept but a prototype is in the works. I can’t wait to see how the internals are configured when it is built.

Via: Gadzetomania