The spring 2011 batch of Cornell University ECE 4760 Designing with Microcontrollers Final Projects are out. Be prepared to spend a few hours browsing through the details of these cool projects. There is everything from a human tracking fan system to a DJ Touchscreen Device.
If you are into playing rock paper scissors have a look at the ECE 4760 project below. David Dunn and Chris Fairfax designed and built this rock paper scissor system, I was very impressed to read that they opted to build their own flex sensors instead of purchasing commercially available ones. Their DIY flex sensor is made using copper tape, ESD foam, heat shrink and some electrical tape. The result is a strip that has a resistance of 200K ohms when it isn’t bent and 5 ohms when bent at a 90 degree angle.
“Our implementation involved the use of two sensor gloves (one for each player) that tracked bends in the user’s fingers, to determine the symbol put out by each player, as well as hand acceleration, to track the start and end of each game. The game system connected to a computer through the use of a USB serial connection to print game data and game statistics to the computer screen.”
