Imagitronics from Japan shared his latest creation with us in the Hacked Gadgets forum. It’s a USB Controlled Traffic Light Status Indicator which he built to show the number of running applications at a glance.
“I retrofitted this generic “Blinking Traffic Light†with a USB module and wrote a simple Mac application to monitor my computer usage and reflect the results in by changing the stoplight.
This project was born out of the frustration after being constantly interrupted by people who could not tell that I was already busy. The alpha version of the software detects the number of running applications on the computer using Cocoa’s NSDistributedNotificationCenter and updates the light based on a user-defined threshold.”
USB Controlled Traffic Light Status Indicator
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Wow, am I the only one disappointed by this picture? As tech-centric as Japan is, I pictured offices surrounded by cool gadgets and electronic clear/frost glass. Brown paneling? Are you sure that office is in Japan and not the Peter Brady’s basement? I am bummed out for the rest of the day…
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That is a good idea… I wish I had the know how to build one because I think I might be beginning to spend TOO much time on the PC, with dozen of apps open at once
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shawn,
Sorry to disappoint you but I actually live on Okinawa, a very small island about half-way between mainland Japan and Taiwan.
Check the link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=naha+japan&ie=UTF8&ll=31.578535,132.319336&spn=16.843098,29.882812&z=5&iwloc=addr&om=1
Okinawa is a very traditional island. The electronics and computers available here are probably worse than what you would find in the states right now. Although I do have 100mb fiber directly to my home. So that’s something.
By the way, to avoid confusion – I’m not Japanese, but I’ve been working on this island for the last couple of years.
Thanks,
Tim
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Cute. Makes me want to wire up my bed so I can take a nap with out being disturbed
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I’ve actually had a similar idea; to put LEDs of varying colors outside my door and a rotary switch just inside. In any case, red would stand for “Do Not Disturb”, orange “knock before entering” and green “come on in”.
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hi! I am a student and I am now working with my project. And i like to make a traffic light that has a sensor, can you help how to make it. Please email me the procedure, and its schematic diagram. Hoping for your help! Thanks!
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Hi April,
Click on some of the links in the article for more information.