Do you or your significant other have trouble sticking to a budget? Well, say goodbye to overspending with the iBag2: a high-tech wearable device that helps curb your impulse buys.

The iBag2 is equipped with a Genuino Uno, a 10,000mAh power bank, and several other interesting components. There’s a timer connected to electromagnets that lock the bag according to your most vulnerable spending moments during the course of a day, an RFID system hooked up to LEDs and vibration motors that illuminate in blue and vibrate each time your wallet is taken out, as well as a built-in GPS unit that warns you when you’re near a pre-preogrammed “vulnerable spending zone.”

Aside from curtailing your expensive bad habit, the iBag2 will also reminds you every two hours via yellow lights and small vibrations when it’s time to reapply sunscreen (you know, in case you’re shopping outdoors), and a Bluetooth tracker that pings your phone if the bag is a certain distance away from you.

The wearable prototype was created by Finder.com in collaboration with New York-based fashion designer Geova Rodrigues. Need a handbag that  knows when and where you’re likely to overspend? You can check out the iBag2 here.

Developed by media artist Bojana Petkovic, Swamp Orchestra is an interactive sound installation that mimics the natural chorus of swamp creatures. The project is comprised of 16 light-sensitive sound modules, with each one producing noises from insects, frogs, amphibians, birds and other organisms. Each module responds to a flashlight, and the sound varies based on the amount of the light.

Swamp orchestra seemingly functions as sound sculpture which in a subtle way changes the ambience and acoustic experience of the space but also has a substantial presence as a work of physical sculpture. The set up itself reflects the layout of a concert hall stage on a much smaller scale. The pyramid shape has been carefully chosen for its symbolism as well as modularity where three or five pyramids form the cube.

Petkovic says Swamp Orchestra is an example of the complex, multi-layered interplay between nature and machine, human intervention and artifice. The installation’s programming and electronics, according to her, are excellent examples of this.

Each light that shines above the modules represents a “personal conductor,” an oscillator controlled by an Arduino. This enables endless variations of composing the peace but also allows the participant to slow down and notice the subtleties of the composition.

A common complaint in the comments of many a Hackaday project is: Why did they use a microcontroller? It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback someone else’s design, but it’s rare to see the OP come back and actually prove that a microcontroller was the best choice. So when [GreatScott] rebuilt his recent DIY coil gun with discrete logic, we just had to get the word out.

You’ll recall from the original build that [GreatScott] was not attempting to build a brick-wall blasting electromagnetic rifle. His build was more about exploring the concepts and working up a viable control mechanism for a small coil gun, and as such he chose an Arduino to rapidly prototype his control circuit. But when taken to task for that design choice, he rose to the challenge and designed a controller using discrete NAND and NOR gates, some RS latches, and a couple of comparators. The basic control circuit was simple, but too simple for safety — a projectile stuck in the barrel could leave a coil energized indefinitely, leading to damage. What took a line of code in the Arduino sketch to fix required an additional comparator stage and an RC network to build a timer to deenergize the coil automatically. In the end the breadboarded circuit did the job, but implementing it would have required twice the space of the Arduino while offering none of the flexibility.

Not every project deserves an Arduino, and sometimes it’s pretty clear the builder either took the easy way out or was using the only trick in his or her book. Hats off to [GreatScott] for not only having the guts to justify his design, but also proving that he has the discrete logic chops to pull it off.

The BITalino is great for biohacking — hook up the sensors and play Classic Pong with a swing of your wrist.

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The post Use BITalino to Graph Your Biosignals and Play Pong! appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Maker Shuang Peng has created a 13 DOF animatronic hand using an Arduino Mega, seven servo motors, and six air cylinders, along with a Leap Motion sensor for control.

As briefly described on his Instructables page:

There are various ways to control the hand. I’ve tried the Leap Motion sensor and the data glove, which catches my motion via Processing. Then the Processing communicate with the Mega via serial. Now, I’m trying to use EMOTIV Insight EEG sensor to control it.

A team of researchers were able to unlock and start the ignition of Volkswagen cars with just $40 of electronic components.

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The post Volkswagen Security Problems: Arduino Hack Reveals RFID Vulnerability appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Although digital billboards may be nothing new; a marketing campaign by Ford is taking them to a whole new level. Created by Kinetic Worldwide, the automaker has created a ‘sensorial’ experience that blows air and smoke while emitting the sound of an engine as a person makes their way past the advertisement.

Installed at an airport in India, the billboard features a red carpet which is connected to a large screen via an Arduino. Whenever a traveler approaches the carpet, it triggers the wind, the noise of a revving Mustang engine, and for some of the ads, artificial smoke.

Sommnath Sengupta, creative director at Kinetic India, tells The Drum that more immersive experiences can lead to greater ROI:

First and business class travelers come with a mindset of luxuriating in a personalized experience. Our creative concept is a sensorial statement of power that speaks directly to and resonates with this audience. By contextualising the experience of driving a Mustang through dynamic content and technology, Ford has already seen an increase in potential buyers requesting test drives.

See it in action below!

A video posted by Kinetic (@kineticworldwide) on Aug 18, 2016 at 12:57pm PDT

Damon McMillan built a robotic boat. Not just any robotic boat. This one is sailing across the world's oceans. And it's just simple and elegant enough to work.

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The post Did a Solar-Powered Autonomous Boat Just Cross the Pacific Ocean? appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

What do you do when you find your old Game Boy? Most of us try to boot it up and reminisce the days of playing Tetris, Super Mario and Pokémon. Others like Gautier Hattenberger decide to turn it into a drone controller.

In order to do this, Hattenberger modified the Game Boy’s Game Link port with an Arduino Nano and an FTDI chip, which converts the Game Link signals to USB. Using a small piece of software on his laptop, he is able to control his Parrot ARDrone 2.0 via the classic device— A and B buttons for up or down, and the directional arrows for maneuvering.

Hattenberger has detailed his entire build here, and shared the code on GitHub.

One of the classics of circuit bending is to mess around with the clock chip that drives the CPU in simple noise-making toys. [Goran] took this a step further with his Furby hack. Skip down to the video embedded below if you just want to see the results.

After first experiments modifying the Furby’s clock with a string of resistors (YouTube), [Goran] decided to opt for more control, overriding the clock entirely with a square wave coming out of an Arduino. And then, the world became his oyster.

The Furby’s eyes were replaced with ultrasonic distance sensors, and what looks like a speaker was hot-glued into its mouth. Since this particular Furby only “talks” when you pull its tail, he naturally wired in tail-switch control to boot. As [Goran] suggests, a light show is the obvious next step.

If you haven’t pulled apart an electronic toy and played around with glitching it, you don’t know what you’re missing. We’ve got a classic intro to circuit bending, as well as projects that range from the simple to the ridiculously elaborate. It’s a fun introduction to electronics for the young ones as well. Grab a toy noisemaker and get hacking.