A simple game is always much more fun when it is spiced up with some cool electronics. The wooden tilt maze game has been around for a long time. This Marble Maze that is Remote Controlled using an Accelerometer kicks up the original game by allowing the player to interact with the game using a controller that moves the real game according to user movements. Have a look at the project build details for all of the issues that were found during the construction.

Via: Trossen Robotics

"To control the servos I used a BOE development board with a BS2 microcontroller from Parallax along with a Memsic 2125 dual-axis accelerometer as the controller. The addition of the maze transforms this project from a electro-mechanical thing-a-ma-jig to an exciting hands-on game. For this project I choose to build a maze myself using balsa wood. This would allow me complete control of the maze difficulty and dimensions and also ensures the weight is kept to a minimum. I also found wooden balls to serve as the "marbles" for the maze. It just so happens that these balls and the balsa wood walls make a fun "thunk" noise whenever they collide."

How many times were you left frustrated trying to change the channel on the TV just to realize that the batteries are dead. Of course there are no more batteries in the house so you are forced to steal the batteries from a lesser used remote. Even more frustrating is when you need to use the remote that had the batteries robbed out of them. This problem may be a thing of the past, there is finally a remote control that is charged by picking it up and using it! Motion is what charges this cool unit.

Via: OhGizmo

"Sound power generation and NEC Electronics Corporation (President: Kohei Hayamizu, Location: Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, following the sound power generation) today announced that power generation in vibration that occurs when you press the button on the remote control with your fingers, "Vibration power generation, "The combination of power control techniques and proprietary technology, a prototype remote control without batteries for consumer electronics."

Music selection is usually a boring process. It usually involves some common interface such as scrolling through titles on a portable player, using a remote for your stereo or a mouse on your computer. With this RFID Music Selection called the RFiDJ from Roteno Labs music is represented by tiles and the tiles graphically represent the music that can be expected. I can think of lots of opportunities for developing this much further into a very immersible system. Have a tap sensor so that a tap on the tile will play the next randomly selected song by that artist. I think having this at a party and have a system where guests can add their favorite song to a playlist is also something that would be very interesting!

"The RFiDJ project is my first attempt at an application in Imperceptible Computing. After work I like to listen to music/radio for a bit to unwind. This usually involves logging into my HTPC and selecting a playlist. For this project I attempted to change how I interact with my music and HTPC. Using RFID tags and photo frame coasters I am attempting to simplify the interface to my music."

If you like classic video games and robots you need to have a look at this Roomba Pac-Man system. At a glance it may look like a fun game where the Roomba cleaners are being controlled by a bunch of remote controls that people are controlling. That low tech scenario could not be further from what is actually happening here. There is lots of tech making these Roomba robots play!

"By utilizing service discovery and ad-hoc networking, all of the robots operate independently and autonomously. There is no centralized controller controlling the game, each robot makes its own decisions and sends its own commands. Pac-Man is the only robot that takes human input, and this is simply in an "augmented control capacity" where user input is limited to valid directions of travel (no passing through boundaries). The laptop and GUI provided for the operator provide no computational support for the game, its simply a node that allows the operator to issue commands. A good example of the level of autonomy in the robots is when a ghost kills Pac-Man. Upon determining that it has killed Pac-Man, it issues a command to Pac-Man to let it know it was killed, and then informs all of the other ghosts that Pac-Man was killed. Pac-Man performs his death, and then informs all of the other robots that they need to reset for another round."

PJMonty from SoCalHalloween sure knows how to rig up some great animatronics! The bird and talking skull are funny and spooky at the same time! This project was entered in the Halloween Project Contest, which by the way there is still time to enter.

Via: HG Forum

"The electronics consist of two custom circuit boards I designed. The bottom one (most of which is obscured) contains the micro-controller and memory. It talks to the host PC via a serial port and has animation moves streamed to it on the fly. The top board has another micro-controller and is responsible for handling the time critical work of controlling the actual RC servos. It also has some interface circuitry on it for things like the LCD. Partially visible on the right is the power supply which powers both the circuitry and the servos."

SoCalHalloween - "Small Candy" from SoCalHalloween on Vimeo.

Piezoelectric elements can be used to make sound or detect sound. Steve Hoefer has made a Knock Lock, which is a device that can listen to knocks on the door. If the sequence of knocks is the same as the recorded knock sequence it unlocks the deadbolt on the door. Steve was the guy who also made the Dice Reading Machine.

Via: Zedomax

"While working on another project I ran across the Arduino knock sensor tutorial. Sensing a single knock is a great little project for learning about microcontrollers, but what about sensing specific knocks? Seeeeecret knocks? And if we could detect a secret knock, shouldn’t it unlock a door? If you can’t tell by looking this was cobbled together from spare stuff around the lab, it’s not much more than a piezo speaker, a tiny gear reduction motor, and an Arduino. And PVC pipe."

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