John Edgar Park has developed a funny project:  a fully functional Arduino that is about six times larger than real life.

Will be presented at Maker Faire 2012.

Read John’s original post.

The Etch-a-Sketch. A standard bearer for childhood, and one that most of us never really mastered. While Yelizaveta Lokshina can't help you create awe-inspiring portraits from aluminum powder, she has managed to update the toy for the digital age. Using an Arduino, a few buttons and a pressure sensor crammed inside a hollowed-out Etch-a-Sketch, the 3.0 version of the doodler is able to draw in old school gray, as well as vibrant colors created by blending an RGB palette. While holding down the red, green or blue button you squeeze the pressure sensor to add more or less of individual hues. The same sensor is used to change brush width when you hold down the black button. There's even a secret mode that automatically cycles through colors and thicknesses for creating vibrant, almost hallucinatory patterns.

At the moment, the dual doodle knobs need to be physically connected to a computer so that a Processing script can work its magic and render the virtual Etch-a-Sketch. But, future versions may include wireless for sketching out images from the comfort of a couch and an accelerometer for the replicating the satisfying sensation of shaking the red fram to erase your creation. Basically, it's still a work in progress. Drawing with the Etch-a-Sketch 3.0 is just as satisfying, in a tactile sense, as the original, though we struggled slightly to get the hang of the pressure sensitive selector. One thing's for sure, though, the kids love it even more than the 1960 creation. Check out the video after the break to see it in action on the floor of the ITP Spring Show.

Gallery: Etch-a-Sketch 3.0 hands-on

Continue reading Etch-a-Sketch 3.0 hands-on (video)

Etch-a-Sketch 3.0 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 20:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With the help from Lindsey French, some houseplants in Chicago have enjoyed a concert generated by the vibrations of a cherry tree in western Massachusetts.

Attached to the cherry tree was a piezo sensor, which measured the tree’s vibrations. These were uploaded to the world wide web using an Ethernet Pro as a server, and a friend’s wireless router, configured to allow port forwarding. On the chicago end, a processing sketch gathered the data and wrote it to the serial port my laptop. An Arduino attached to the laptop output the data to transducers, which were attached to ceramic saucers (and later, a plywood shelf) as the medium for the vibrations. The Arduino and breadboard were housed in a custom laser-cut box, based off of a modified thingverse template.

Read here the full story.

How to become YouTube from Thechnocrat on Vimeo.

It may be on a T shirt or it may be on a bag, either way it will look awesome! A simple DIY weekend art using your arduino and a few more common components.

Using an Arduino, a 9-volt battery, and eight ping-pong balls with a white LED inserted into each one, the ring of dots lights up in sequence, endlessly chasing its tail waiting for a non-existant video to load. A giant F5 refresh button would have really completed the costume, though, since that’s everyone’s secret weapon for getting a YouTube clip to finally load.

[Via:Hackaday and Gizmodo]

Continue reading Arduino-powered Artbot writes the time, erases it, writes again (video)

Arduino-powered Artbot writes the time, erases it, writes again (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Matt Richardson turns Arduino, Twitter and lasers into art (video)

Matt Richardson turns Arduino, Twitter and lasers into art (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.