Using a Kinect sensor with MATLAB/Simulink and an Arduino, B.Avinash and J.Karthikeyan made a robotic arm to mimic their every move.

If you need a robotic arm to follow your movements, the Kinect sensor is a great place to start. On the other hand, it’s a long leap programming-wise to go from sensor input to coordinated movement of servo motors. Through a toolchain stretching from the sensor itself, to a computer, and finally to an Arduino Mega controlling the servos directly, Avinash and Karthikeyan did just that.

For their process, the computer takes data from the Kinect sensor, then translates it into servo angles using the MATLAB and Simulink computer programs. Resulting data is then fed into the Arduino via a serial connection, which controls the robot’s movements appropriately with a slight delay.

Be sure to check out the project’s Instructables page to learn more about this awesome build!

Using eight jack-o’-lanterns and an Arduino Mega, “CrankyCoder” built his own automated pumpkin patch.

CrankyCoder’s favorite holiday, as well as his family’s, is Halloween. After creating a skull that follows people around a few years ago, he decided to take things up a notch with his “Creepy Pumpkin Patch.” His patch includes eight pumpkins on the edges of a path with homemade pressure switches in between. As trick-or-treaters walk by, the patch is activated, making the pumpkins spin creepily.

Cleverly, CrankyCoder employs two pie pans with marbles in between for each rotating pumpkin, creating ball bearings to support the weight. Also, instead of a candle or other complicated electronics, he’s using flickering LEDs from the dollar store to produce a creepy lighting effect.

With Halloween just days away, be sure to check out the project’s video seen here or its GitHub page to get started on your own Creepy Pumpkin Patch.

Inspired by The Goonies movie and The Room game, Guido Bonelli has constructed a piece of Arduino-controlled interactive furniture to entertain his guests.

After what appears to be a massive amount of work involving 3D printing, laser cutting, wiring, and programming, Bonelli has come up with a puzzle box that shouldn’t need any explanation. Using button presses and other interactions with it, participants are able to unlock a treasure box in the bottom, a working wooden safe!

Additionally, the box tells time in a very unique way. It has an hourglass that is automatically flipped to indicate minutes, and Roman numerals at the top to reveal hours. You can see how it works and how it was assembled in the videos below!

I wanted to create a unique piece of furniture for my home which my guests could interact with. This time however, I wanted it to be something which I wouldn’t have to explain how it worked. Instead, I wanted mysterious scriptures scribed all over the sculpture to intrigue my guests.

At the heart of GoonieBox is of course an Arduino… Effortlessly whisking away my artistically written 0’s and 1’s into a symphony of movement, sound and game play. Taking approximately 800 hours of build time, GoonieBox is my greatest accomplishment by far in the world of Arduino.

You can find more information on the project’s Hackster.io posting, or check out the author’s interesting Dr.Duino product page.

Inspired by The Goonies movie and The Room game, Guido Bonelli has constructed a piece of Arduino-controlled interactive furniture to entertain his guests.

After what appears to be a massive amount of work involving 3D printing, laser cutting, wiring, and programming, Bonelli has come up with a puzzle box that shouldn’t need any explanation. Using button presses and other interactions with it, participants are able to unlock a treasure box in the bottom, a working wooden safe!

Additionally, the box tells time in a very unique way. It has an hourglass that is automatically flipped to indicate minutes, and Roman numerals at the top to reveal hours. You can see how it works and how it was assembled in the videos below!

I wanted to create a unique piece of furniture for my home which my guests could interact with. This time however, I wanted it to be something which I wouldn’t have to explain how it worked. Instead, I wanted mysterious scriptures scribed all over the sculpture to intrigue my guests.

At the heart of GoonieBox is of course an Arduino… Effortlessly whisking away my artistically written 0’s and 1’s into a symphony of movement, sound and game play. Taking approximately 800 hours of build time, GoonieBox is my greatest accomplishment by far in the world of Arduino.

You can find more information on the project’s Hackster.io posting, or check out the author’s interesting Dr.Duino product page.

2PrintBeta solves the problem of cutting multiple cables with an innovative scissors setup.

At times, the 3D printing and engineering company 2PrintBeta needs to cut wires and other assorted materials to length. Sure, they could simply cut them by hand, but that takes time and their business is growing. An industrial cable cutter is quite expensive, so being an engineering company, they decided to make their own using a rather rugged pair of scissors actuated by a bolt attached to a drive disk.

For this operation, wire feeding is done by a pair of 3D-printed wheels, and the “brains of the operation” is provided by an Arduino Mega using stepper motor drivers.

The ideas ranged from razorblades to a holder for a dremel with a cut sheet. But a short test showed: scissors are sufficient. So why not use scissors?

If you’re skeptical about how well scissors work in this application, be sure to check out their video below! You can also read more about the project here, or check out Hackaday’s writeup.

2PrintBeta solves the problem of cutting multiple cables with an innovative scissors setup.

At times, the 3D printing and engineering company 2PrintBeta needs to cut wires and other assorted materials to length. Sure, they could simply cut them by hand, but that takes time and their business is growing. An industrial cable cutter is quite expensive, so being an engineering company, they decided to make their own using a rather rugged pair of scissors actuated by a bolt attached to a drive disk.

For this operation, wire feeding is done by a pair of 3D-printed wheels, and the “brains of the operation” is provided by an Arduino Mega using stepper motor drivers.

The ideas ranged from razorblades to a holder for a dremel with a cut sheet. But a short test showed: scissors are sufficient. So why not use scissors?

If you’re skeptical about how well scissors work in this application, be sure to check out their video below! You can also read more about the project here, or check out Hackaday’s writeup.

The team at [2PrintBeta] required a bunch of cables, heat shrink, and braid to be cut for their customers. They looked into an industrial cable cutter, but decided the price was a little too high, so they decided to make their own. They had a bunch of ideas for cutting: Using a razor blade?  Or a Dremel with a cutting wheel? What they came up with was a DIY cable cutter that uses a pair of scissors, a pair of stepper motors, a pair of 3D printed wheels and an Arduino.

The first thing the team had to do was to mount the scissors so they would cut reliably. One of the stepper motors was attached to a drive wheel that had a bolt mounted on it. This went through one of the scissors’ handles, the other handle was held in place on the machine using screws. The second stepper motor was used to rotate the wheels that drives the cable through to the correct length. [2PrintBeta] used a BAM&DICE shield and two DICE-STK stepper motor drivers on an Arduino Mega to control the cutter.

The [2PrintBeta] team are pretty good at doing things themselves, as we’ve seen previously with their DIY plastic bender. And again, with this automatic cable cutter, they’ve seen a need and resolved it using the things at their disposal and some DIY ingenuity.

If you love chess, but aren’t thrilled about playing it on an app, the InfiVention team has just the board for you.

The origin of the game chess is a fascinating and somewhat unknown tale, stretching continents and many hundreds of years. In the last 25 or so years, however, it has gone from a game played on a beautiful board with finely crafted pieces, to something played on a computer or smartphone. Perhaps this is a good thing, since finding competition is as easy as signing into the correct game.

On the other hand, this type of play looses a lot of charm, and you can’t exactly pass the app on your beat up smartphone to your kids one day. Attempting to fill in the gap is the amazing automated board called “Square Off.” With an Arduino Mega 2560 at its core, it automatically moves the pieces, and detects where you move, allowing you to play in the real world with someone remotely–even if he or she is merely using a tablet!

Square Off is all set to redefine the world of board games, starting with chess. Bringing to you the world’s smartest, most connected and the most evolved chess board. It enables you to play your favorite game against a fellow chess enthusiast from anywhere in the world. The automated board is designed to reflect the move of your opponent with precision. Not just that, you can challenge the artificial intelligence of the board, too.

Intrigued? You can learn more about Square Off on its nearly-funded (as of this writing) Kickstarter page, as well as on the Arduino Project Hub!

If you love chess, but aren’t thrilled about playing it on an app, the InfiVention team has just the board for you.

The origin of the game chess is a fascinating and somewhat unknown tale, stretching continents and many hundreds of years. In the last 25 or so years, however, it has gone from a game played on a beautiful board with finely crafted pieces, to something played on a computer or smartphone. Perhaps this is a good thing, since finding competition is as easy as signing into the correct game.

On the other hand, this type of play looses a lot of charm, and you can’t exactly pass the app on your beat up smartphone to your kids one day. Attempting to fill in the gap is the amazing automated board called “Square Off.” With an Arduino Mega 2560 at its core, it automatically moves the pieces, and detects where you move, allowing you to play in the real world with someone remotely–even if he or she is merely using a tablet!

Square Off is all set to redefine the world of board games, starting with chess. Bringing to you the world’s smartest, most connected and the most evolved chess board. It enables you to play your favorite game against a fellow chess enthusiast from anywhere in the world. The automated board is designed to reflect the move of your opponent with precision. Not just that, you can challenge the artificial intelligence of the board, too.

Intrigued? You can learn more about Square Off on its nearly-funded (as of this writing) Kickstarter page, as well as on the Arduino Project Hub!

Wake up to your favorite tunes using this beautiful sheet metal alarm clock!

If you need to get up for work, class, or simply to avoid wasting the day away, setting an alarm is the obvious solution. Sure, you could buy a clock or just use your phone, but if you build Dejan Nedelkovski’s Arduino-based device, you can be reminded of your awesome Maker skills every morning.

The clock is equipped with an Arduino Mega, an MP3, and an RTC module to play music and display the time and current song on a nice 3.2-inch touchscreen. The case, which was designed in SolidWorks, is made out of aluminum sheet metal. Considering that he used an improvised bender and hot glue to put it together, the results look fantastic!

In this project, I will show you how you can make an Arduino touchscreen MP3 music player and alarm clock. The home screen features a big clock, date and temperature information, as well as two buttons…

Want one of your own? Check out Nedelkovski’s “How to Mechatronics” website for code, schematics, and even a 3D model of the alarm itself.