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.

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.

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

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.

Inspired by a project he found over on Instructables, Maker JoEtuuube has created an Arduino-based waveform generator using an 8-bit resistor ladder DAC that can precisely produce different common waveforms at frequencies between 1Hz and 20Khz in sine-wave, sawtooth, triangle and various ratios of square wave. It features a speaker and a small LCD display.

A neat thing about the LCD is that it’s actually a reverse-engineered display from a cheap pocket calculator. With his hack, JoEtuuube no longer punches each digit in directly; instead, he only taps the clear, +, = and 1 keys. He can then enter arbitrary numbers by typing in the right number of ones and adding them up. For example, 345 = 111 + 111 + 111 + 11 + 1.

The generator itself uses an Arduino Uno and runs off a 9V battery. In the video below, JoEtuuube provides a detailed walkthrough of the firmware and how everything works. You can also read more about it on Hackaday.

If you’ve ever seen a TV commercial for any fast-food chain, then chances are you’re familiar with the burger drop shot–you know, that scene where ingredients like lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bacon, beef patties and sesame seed buns fall from above and then stack themselves upon landing. Well, photographer/Maker Steve Giralt wanted to try capturing a shot like this on his own without the use of CGI or an expensive post-production process.

To accomplish this, Giralt created a rig with an Arduino-based timing control system (named P.A.T.R.I.C) that triggers the camera motion, as well as the drop of the burger’s ingredients so that everything falls perfectly. 

As he explains:

The final video is a synchronized work of art. In the half second of real time, multiple Arduino controlled servo motors with custom 3D printed scalpel blades cut through elastic bands holding up the top bun, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomato, bacon, meat, and lower bun while a 3D printed air powered catapult launched ketchup and mustard blobs into each other.

This all happened while the Phantom camera was moving down on the motion control robot arm at high speed, adjusting focus, as it raced the ingredients and gravity down to the landing.

When we got a perfect landing of the burger, I had a hand model slam down a freshly poured beer down next to the burger to finish off the shot. It was so much fun!

You can read all about the build here, and get a behind-the-scenes look in the video below!

(Photos: PetaPixel)

A team from the University of California, Riverside has developed a LEGO-like system of blocks that enables users to make custom chemical and biological research instruments quickly, easily and affordably. The 3D-printed blocks can create various scientific tools, which can be used in university labs, schools, hospitals, or anywhere else.

The blocks–which are called Multifluidic Evolutionary Components (MECs)–are described in the journal PLOS ONE. Each unit performs a basic task found in a lab instrument, such as pumping fluids, making measurements, or interfacing with a user. Since the blocks are designed to work together, users can build apparatus—like bioreactors for making alternative fuels or acid-base titration tools for high school chemistry classes—rapidly and efficiently. The blocks are especially well-suited for resource-limited settings, where a library of blocks could be utilized to create an assortment of different research and diagnostic equipment.

The project is led by graduate student Douglas Hill along with assistant professor of bioengineering William Grover, and is funded by the National Science Foundation. You can read all about the 3D-printed system here, and check out the video below which reveals an Arduino Uno being put to work.

Created by “modulogeek,” the MonomePi is a step sequencer that uses a monome as an input controller and a toy glockenspiel as the output instrument.

The brain of the device is a Raspberry Pi 3, which runs a step sequencer program written in Python. Both the monome and an Arduino Uno are connected to the Pi via USB. The Arduino controls eight servos, each attached to a “mallet” made of LEGO bricks taped onto coffee sticks.

As modulogeek explains, the Arduino is programmed to receive serial commands from the Python program. A command is one byte or 8 bits, each bit representing ‘on’ (play the note) and ‘off’ (do nothing) states of each servo.

The monome is entirely controlled by the Python program, which sends serial commands that, for example, tell the monome which buttons need to light up or turn off. It also receives serial data from the monome, like which buttons are getting pressed and depressed.

You can see it below, as well as check out its GitHub page here.

Have you ever found yourself in an argument with a friend and wanted to know once and for all if they were telling the truth? Lucky for you, 17-year-old Dante Roumega has created a simple lie detector using an Arduino.

This system works by measuring an individual’s galvanic skin response, which is a fancy way of saying their conductivity. The basis for the project is that our skin changes its conductivity depending on how we feel, particularly following an evocative question.

Roumega connects an Arduino housed inside a small cardboard box to person being interrogated and to a computer running graphing software, which allows him to monitor the results in real-time. There are also three LEDs that enable him to tell if someone’s lying without looking at the screen. He starts by asking his subjects some easy things that they’d answer truthfully, like “what’s your name” or “where do you live,” followed by some that would likely prompt a false answer to get a baseline.

As for the finger pads, Roumega just used a few pieces of tinfoil, velcro and tape. He connects the Arduino’s A0 pin to one of the tinfoil strips and the 5v pin to another, and then wraps them around the middle and index fingers, respectively. You can find all of the wiring instructions and polygraph code here.

It goes without saying that this isn’t the most accurate system in the world, but still cool nevertheless!

While it may not be the first (nor will it be the last) robotic bartender we’ve seen, Pierre Charlier has come up with a clever and affordable way to mix the perfect drink at home. Say hello to HardWino.

The automatic cocktail maker consists of a six-slot, rotating beverage holder that is controlled by an Arduino Mega and uses a TFT screen to accept orders. The project also includes stepper motors and L298 driver boards, which are supported by 3D-printed parts. Power is supplied through a 12V DC jack.

Charlier provides a step-by-step breakdown of the build in the video below. Keep in mind, however, that this is merely a prototype. We can’t wait to see the final result!