The Microsoft Milan Surface Computing system represents 5 years of development. We have seen similar demonstrations in the past, the SensitiveWall Towers and Ultimate Gaming Touch Screen come to mind. The Microsoft system looks more refined however new product demos always look great… Videos after the jump. “At its core, Milan is powered by a fairly standard high-end Vista PC with an off-the-shelf graphics card, 3GHz Pentium 4 processor and
This robot arm uses potentiometers to determine where the human arm is and then a servo controls the robot arm to match the position. “Each joint on the master arm is a potentiometer(a variable resistor). A joystick port basically checks the resistance. By itself, this resistance means nothing, so I wrote a little routine that converts a resistance into an angle that the servos can understand. To do this
This Lighter Accelerometer hack by Bardlund demonstrates piezoelectric properties. “Piezoelectricity is the ability of crystals and certain ceramic materials to generate a voltage in response to applied mechanical stress. Piezoelectricity was discovered by Pierre Curie and the word is derived from the Greek piezein, which means to squeeze or press. The piezoelectric effect is reversible in that piezoelectric crystals, when subjected to an externally applied voltage, can change shape by
What looks to be a cute bear is more that meets the eye. This MIT Leonardo Robot packs some serious computing power. Watch some videos of it in action, Video 1, Video 2, Video 3. “Rather than requiring people to learn a new form of communication to interact with robots or to teach them, our research concerns developing robots that are natural for people to teach and collaborate with. In
If you need to judge some Pinwood Derby races this Pinewood Derby Finish Line Detector project will give you some unbiased results. Schematics and details are provided on the site. “A few years ago the finish line detector at my church’s AWANA Grand Prix track bit the dust. AWANA Grand Prix is the same thing as the Pinewood Derby to scouting folks. We did without for a couple years until
Jed Berk created this Autonomous Light Air Vessel, it is just one of the contraptions that were on display this weekend at the Make Faire. “ALAVs 2.0 (Autonomous Light Air Vessels) are networked objects that communicate the concept of connectivity among people, objects, and the environment. Through the use of mobile technologies people can influence the behavior of the ALAVs by starting conversations and building closer relationships with them. ALAVs
John Maushammer has created one of the coolest watches I have ever seen. Reminds me of the Laptop Pong Clock but much smaller and tougher to build. Have a look at the pong watch build log for some interesting construction details. Code will be available on the Plans page when it’s finalized. Video after the jump. “The basic idea – from Buro Vormkrijgers – is genius: each minute the right
