Controlling your computer with a wave of the hand seems like something from science fiction, and for good reason. From Minority Report to Iron Man, we’ve seen plenty of famous actors controlling their high-tech computer systems by wildly gesticulating in the air. Meanwhile, we’re all stuck using keyboards and mice like a bunch of chumps.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. As [Norbert Zare] demonstrates in his latest project, you can actually achieve some fairly impressive gesture control on your computer using a $10 USD PAJ7620U2 sensor. Well not just the sensor, of course. You need some way to convert the output from the I2C-enabled sensor into something your computer will understand, which is where the microcontroller comes in.

Looking through the provided source code, you can see just how easy it is to talk to the PAJ7620U2. With nothing more exotic than a switch case statement, [Norbert] is able to pick up on the gesture flags coming from the sensor. From there, it’s just a matter of using the Arduino Keyboard library to fire off the appropriate keycodes. If you’re looking to recreate this we’d go with a microcontroller that supports native USB, but technically this could be done on pretty much any Arduino. In fact, in this case he’s actually using the ATtiny85-based Digispark.

This actually isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody use a similar sensor to pull off low-cost gesture control, but so far, none of these projects have really taken off. It seems like it works well enough in the video after the break, but looks can be deceiving. Have any Hackaday readers actually tried to use one of these modules for their day-to-day futuristic computing?

Primary image

My Goal was to come up with a design where all the speciality parts could be ordered  for under $20US.

The bill of matirels (BOM) looks like this:

2 ea 9g CR Servos

2 ea Wheels for the Servos

1 ea 4xAAA battery box with switch

1 ea SR-04 ultrasonic range sensor  

1 ea Arduino IDE compatable ATTINY85 based controller board.  Such as a Digispark, Iteaduino or any one of the similar devices. 

read more

Primary image

My Goal was to come up with a design where all the speciality parts could be ordered  for under $20US.

The bill of matirels (BOM) looks like this:

2 ea 9g CR Servos

2 ea Wheels for the Servos

1 ea 4xAAA battery box with switch

1 ea SR-04 ultrasonic range sensor  

1 ea Arduino IDE compatable ATTINY85 based controller board.  Such as a Digispark, Iteaduino or any one of the similar devices. 

read more

Primary image

My Goal was to come up with a design where all the speciality parts could be ordered  for under $20US.

The bill of matirels (BOM) looks like this:

2 ea 9g CR Servos

2 ea Wheels for the Servos

1 ea 4xAAA battery box with switch

1 ea SR-04 ultrasonic range sensor  

1 ea Arduino IDE compatable ATTINY85 based controller board.  Such as a Digispark, Iteaduino or any one of the similar devices. 

read more

If you buy expensive computer speakers, they often have a volume knob you can mount somewhere on your desk so you aren’t dependent on the onboard volume control. [Kris S] decided to build his own version of the remote volume control. Not surprisingly, it uses an Arduino-compatible Digispark board and a rotary controller. The Digispark (that [Kris S] bought for $2) is compatible with the Adafruit Trinket. This is key because the Trinket libraries are what make it easy to send media keys over the USB (using the HID interface) to control the volume.

Really, though, the best part of the build is the good looking knob made out of a pill bottle (see the video below). The micro Digispark is small enough to fit in the lid of the pill bottle, and some wax and pellets add some heft to the volume control.

The standard Arduino library has trouble sending multimedia keys, but in a previous post I built a gesture-based volume control that managed to pull it off.  We’ve also covered a similar volume control in the past. That one is also very good looking, but was a more complicated build than what [Kris S] pulled off here.

Digistump has recently announced a partnership with Particle over cloud infrastructure that may well be a signal that the diasporan expansion in microcontroller market may be coming to an end.

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The post Digistump Announces Partnership with Particle’s IoT Cloud appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

So a while back I splashed a little cash on Kickstarter. I hadn't seen or heard of any Arduino's that were as small as the Digispark and I thought it'd be interesting to play with. I pledged a little higher than I should of, with the intention of sharing the Digisparks around (to split the cost of delivery and customs charges) and when they started offering shields to go with the Digisparks I put my name down for several.

That was in September. Roll forward to today when I received a little parcel in the mail.

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Hobbyist Erik Kettenburg was concerned that the size and cost of Arduino stifled his ability to craft, so he set about developing Digispark. It's an Arduino-compatible board, the size of a quarter, that offers a few pins at around a third of the cost of an Uno -- so you don't have to worry about taking projects apart when you're done. Designed to be fully compatible with the Italian standard, it's packing six I/O pins, 8k memory and a full USB connection amongst other things. The aim is to retail the gear for $12 a piece, and has been so popular that it's made nearly $100,000 in Kickstarter pledges, smashing its original goal of $5,000. We've got video for you below, and you can still throw some cash Mr. Kettenburg's way if you fancy getting your hands on one quickly.

Continue reading Digispark, Arduino's unofficial kid brother, takes Kickstarter by storm (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Digispark, Arduino's unofficial kid brother, takes Kickstarter by storm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Planning another Arduino build? If you’re just doing something simple like switching a relay or powering a LED, you might want to think about the Digispark. It’s a very small ATtiny-based Arduino compatible board developed and Kickstarted by [Erik].

The Digispark is based on the very popular Atmel ATtiny85, an 8 pin microcontroller that provides a quarter of the Flash storage and RAM as the ‘official Arduino’ ATMega328p. The lower storage space and RAM doesn’t mean the ’85 is a slouch, though; it can run Arduino code without a hitch, providing six pins for whatever small project you have in mind.

Right now, [Erik]‘s Kickstarter is offering three Digisparks for the price of a single Arduino. At that price, it’s cheap enough to leave in a project and not be repurposed after the build is over. [Erik] is also working on a few shields for the Digispark – only RGB LED shield for now, but hopefully he’ll get some more finished by the time the Kickstarter ends.