Seems like there is no end to the uses of old hard drives. This hack uses the voice coil of a used hard drive to act as a Laser Shutter. Thanks for the tip Robo. “We have developed a high-speed laser shutter based on voice-coil actuators found in generic hard disk drives. We have enhanced the shutter with a new driver circuit described below and a notched flag, achieving 500ns
The latest iRobot is the ConnectR, looks like this could be a great hackable robotic platform. It will be available soon for the mass market but unfortunately it is currently only being made available for a select few to test it. Video after the jump. “Don’t miss out on special moments at home even when you are away. The iRobot ConnectR is a fun new way to see, talk to
Hack your old UPS and install a covert hard drive by using the existing USB connector for access. No one can tell that there is storage in there. “Your computer downloads in plain sight. Pictures, movies, music, files, whatever! Nobody will even know it’s there. Not your kids, your wife, a burglar – not even the RIAA!” Via: Hack n Mod
I can just imagine how much fun Andrew Hundt, Boris Lipchin and Ned Fox from Carnegie Mellon University had creating this Wiimote Lego Tank Surveillance Robot. “This robot is composed of Legos and uses a handyboard as the control hardware. It has 4 wheel drive each controlled by a lego motor, and a pan tilt mount for directing light and the video camera. The Wii Remote talks to a
Thanks to Paul Gittings for leaving a comment with this cool FPGA digital oscilloscope that Jean P. Nicolle from FPGA 4 Fun developed. “Let’s build a simple digital oscilloscope. * Single channel 100MHz/100MSPS (100 mega-samples-per-second) * RS-232 based (we’ll look into USB too) * Inexpensive! A simple digital oscilloscope recipe Using parts from KNJN.com, here are the basic items of our recipe (prices accurate as of this writing, Feb 2007).
This interesting mirror by Daniel Rozin is quite neat. It would be fun to build one of these on a smaller scale using some cheap servos. I can’t imagine the cost of this large unit with over 700 motors! “Rozin’s Weave Mirror assembles 768 motorized and laminated C-shaped prints along the surface of a picture plane that texturally mimics a homespun basket. A seemingly organic smoky portrait comes in
This Waseda-Docomo Face Robot is made by Takanishi who will be featured at Wired Nextfest for this Biped Robot. Video after the jump. “During human communication, a human distinguishes the partnerÂfs individuals by the facial features such as the silhouette, the position and shape of each part, and gauges the mental state based on the facial expressions. Many researchers have developed the robots that can express their emotions using the
