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Here is another cool iPhone projects that controls a RC car. Is the iPhone the new Swiss Army knife of portable electronics? "Controlling is very easy with the iPhone 3G. It has five buttons, four of them you can use for traditional „driving“ and when you press the last one, it unlocks the accelerometer control in the same way as in many driving games available on AppStore. Realization of this project did not take a long time, only one afternoon. Technically it is realized in a hell-bent way, but obviously it’s functional. Schematically: iPhone (OSCemote) → WiFi → PC → Max/Msp → Serial port → Arduino → Original controller."
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With inspiration from this Sprites Mods hack, Bidouille.org has done a cool new version of the hack. Using an Arduino Microcontroller and some custom code the data from the Agilent technologies chip is retrieved. Have a look at this document (PDF) for some more details on what makes the technology work. "Relationship to Object Motion The relationship between the optical flow in the image plane and the velocities of objects in the three dimensional world is not necessarily obvious. We perceive motion when a changing picture is projected onto a stationary screen, for example. Conversely, a moving object may give rise to a constant brightness pattern. Consider, for example, a uniform sphere which exhibits shading because its surface elements are oriented in many different directions. Yet,when it is rotated, the optical flow is zero at all points in the image, since the shading does not move with the surface. Also, specular reflections move with a velocity characteristic of the virtual image, not the surface in which light is reflected."
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These three creations are not exactly Zoetrope creations. But they take the idea to the next level. The first example uses a record player to turn the work at a known rate, then by viewing the piece at a particular frame rate the background of the image appears to be static and the objects seem to interact! The videos below are Burning Man creations by Peter Hudson that use a strobe effect to freeze the image at the correct time. Using this effect there is no need for precise speed but the timing of the strobes must be exact.
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Keep October 15th open, the first episode of a new Discovery Channel show called Prototype This will air. This looks to be a great show that will show us the inner workings of some very cool projects. Doesn’t look like any of the ideas will be simplistic. I think the show will spark creativity in many of us as they delve into their inner thoughts. This video seems to be a sneak peak into episode number 2 where they look into image tracking, I can think of tons of cool applications for this technology. You may recognize one of the cast members, none other than Joe Grand is a part of the show. You may remember Joe as the Defcon 16 badge creator. I hope they keep with the open /hacker theme of the show and provide code and design details of their creations. "In a warehouse on an island in San Francisco Bay, a team of engineers and PhD’s are inventing the future one prototype at a time. From finding solutions to today’s problems, to conceiving cool machines that are just fun to have around, the Prototype This crew imagines and then invents the future by using emerging technologies to build the craziest, one-of-a-kind prototypes of tomorrow." |
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The Prop Master shows us how this cool Automated Halloween Coffin works. The coffin was made some plywood that was painted black, a skeleton of PVC pipe, a Halloween mask, an old suit and a sprinkler valve. Notice how the PVC has slip point that allow the system to pivot to raise a portion of the skeleton. There are also a few non-essentials that were added to enhance the scare effect, some speakers and a sound chip allow for some spooky zombie voices and the red flood light illuminates the zombie as he raises. Watch the video below to see how sit up fast the action is! Check out more of the Prop Masters work here.
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If you are into RC vehicles you need to have a look at this cool Mini V12 RC Car Engine. This is sure to make everyone who looks at it drool. "12-cylinder-4-stroke V-engine with two camshafts below, mixed lubrication and air cooling. * 21 mm bore stroke 21 mm Displacement 87 cm ³ engine capacity to 7,25 cc per cylinder. * Compression ratio of 1:10 weight ca 4800 g speed of 950 - 5000 1/min" |
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Wheelchairs in the near future may be easier to use thanks to some MIT research. This Robot Wheelchair will respond to voice prompts by driving you where you want to go. "MIT researchers are developing a new kind of autonomous wheelchair that can learn all about the locations in a given building, and then take its occupant to a given place in response to a verbal command. Just by saying "take me to the cafeteria" or "go to my room," the wheelchair user would be able to avoid the need for controlling every twist and turn of the route and could simply sit back and relax as the chair moves from one place to another based on a map stored in its memory." Via: Digg
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