Computer Hacks

Snoop on Pager Data Project Completion

  On Monday we featured the first part of Pager Data Snooping experiment. The video above demonstrates the completion of the experiment where the data is successfully retrieved from the device, conditioned and fed into a serial port, some special software allows a Windows computer to display all the messages that are being transmitted to pager clients.

Digital Paperless Receipt System

  Keeping track of paper receipts is a pain. I have lost a few here and there and later needed them to get warranty work done. Some stores are starting to offer receipt re-printing based on your credit card number but you would still need to go back to the store and wait in line for the re-print. It would be great if all your receipts were automatically stored in

Hard Drive Laser Show

  Sensory House made a version of Hard Drive Oscilloscope that was build a few years ago. The effects of the Sensory House version is great, the effects are nice and big! Thanks for listing us as your resource. 🙂

Arduino Image Scanner

  The original intent of this project was to make a MIDI device that would scan in low resolution images on paper and play them as music. Turns out that even though it is only using a handful of LDRs (photo resistors) is makes for a pretty good image scanner also. "It uses LDRs to measure the gray-scale of specific point of a image, and triggers midi notes from a

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Drawing Robot

Inspired by Erik’s creations, Daniele Benedettelli put together this very elaborate drawing robot. You basically import a picture that you want the machine to draw. Manipulate the image to make the image simpler and let the robot loose to draw it. I can’t wait until my daughter starts asking for one of these LEGO Mindstorm NXT kits. It will be lots of fun for me her.

3D Laser Scanner

  Cornell University has just completed their ECE 4760 Designing with Microcontrollers Final Projects. There are lots of great projects, this 3D Laser Scanner by Ryan Dunn and Dale Taylor looks to be a flexible scanning system. Code and schematics are provided so that you can learn from their project. "Our project implements the hardware necessary for a laser triangulation 3D scanner as well as a PC user interface for

3D Electrostatic Computer Interface

  Justin Schunick, Mark Hollenbeck, Luke Shaheen, Scott Gillette and Glenn Black from Northeastern University have created one of the coolest sensor system I have seen in a long time. It uses a PIC 18F4550 microcontroller and an array of simple sensors that are made out of copper plates. It can detect hand movements in 3space all around the tops of the sensors to provide an accurate position indication. At