This time Arduino for drinks, always from Romania.

Do you know what you get if you combine Facebook, Twitter, Arduino, Raspberry PI and alcohol ? Well, you get the Social Drink Machine and a lot of really happy people at HowToWeb Bucharest.
The Social Drink Machine involves a fully enabled robotic bar which prepares your dream cocktail, a Facebook application which you use to order the drink and also a Twitter bot as an alternative ordering method.

In order to “drink with Facebook”, all you have to do is to scan the QR code displayed next to the machine with your mobile phone. It will get you to a Facebook application which enables you to choose the drink you want. Once you have decided what you want to drink, the application displays a large QR code on your mobile phone. You show this to the machine camera, and you will get your drink prepared. Actually, a robotic machine will prepare it for you. All you have to do is to place the glass, which is then moved back and forth until all of the ingredients have been mixed. And if you wanna brag about this, the application allows you to post on Facebook about the crush you just got on the cool robotic bartender.

[Robofun - Create] also made this.

For his most ambitious build to date, [Param] thought it would be a cool idea to have a LED matrix display spitting tweets out via a WiFi connection. The build is now done, and we’ve got to hand it to him for a very nice build.

The build is based on an Arduino with a Sparkfun WiFi shield providing the network connection. The Arduino pings a Javascript app that pulls down tweets from The Verge and displays them on an 8×8 LED matrix display.

What makes [Param]‘s build so cool is its portable nature; the entire device is completely wireless, getting its power from a Sparkfun LiPower shield  and an apparently extremely capacious LiPoly battery.

With a rat’s nest of wires hanging out the back of the LED display, [Param]‘s build is crying out for a proper enclosure, but even given that it remains a quality project. You can see a video of the WiFi’d Twitter display after the break.

Laser tripwire security systems can be expensive propositions that don't always work as planned -- just ask Raytheon, which saw its $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System for JFK International Airport undermined by one wayward jet skier. Taking that as a form of dare, Justin Huynh and teammates at Liquidware have devised a much cheaper (if also much smaller) tripwire of their own. Any interruption of a laser pointer's beam is caught by an Arduino light sensor that promptly sends the alert to an Android-running BeagleBoard xM; if a toy like Bruce the shark dares cross the line, the BeagleBoard sends a Twitter message to let the authorities, or at least Huynh, clamp down on the trespasser. The invention won't replace Raytheon's handiwork anytime soon, although Huynh notes that additional or more powerful sensors could theoretically catch real, muscle-bound sharks and not just their plastic counterparts. The supply checklist and source code are waiting on the company's project page below, so those who'd like to ward off miniature invasions can get started today.

Continue reading Liquidware team crafts laser tripwire that tweets intruder alerts, keeps fake sharks at bay (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Liquidware team crafts laser tripwire that tweets intruder alerts, keeps fake sharks at bay (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you prefer reading your RSS feeds without the backlight, there's hardware for that, and if you'd prefer not reading your Twitter feeds at all, there's now hardware for that as well. Mix an Arduino Ethernet board, an Emic 2 Text-To-Speech Module and the knowhow to put them together, and you've got SocialChatter -- a neat little build that'll read your feeds aloud. The coding's already been done for you, and it's based on Adafruit's own Internet of Things printer sketch with a little bit of tinkering so nothing's lost in translation. If your eyes need a Twitter break and you've got the skills and kit to make it happen, head over to the source link for a how-to guide. Don't fill the requirements? Then jump past the break to hear SocialChatter's soothing voice without all the effort.

Continue reading Arduino-based SocialChatter reads your Twitter feeds so you don't have to (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Internet

Arduino-based SocialChatter reads your Twitter feeds so you don't have to (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Samuel Cox, a maker who defined himself as a mix of “design, ideas and technology“, has invented a brand-new competition for digital citizens: Digilympics.

From his website:

2012 is not only the year of the Olympics, but also the launch of the first ever ‘Digilympics’, a twitter-powered race for sporting success where you determine the outcome. Four Lego athletes move down a physical racetrack as fans Tweet their team to move them further towards the finish line.

Starting today (07/18/2012), the Digilympics will be a two-week event as the four teams – UK, US, Canada and Japan – compete for the prestigious Digilympics Gold Medal.

The competition is open to anyone on the web, allowing them to Tweet their team to success using one of four unique Twitter accounts (UK_Digi, US_Digi, CA_Digi &JP_Digi). Tweets in support of a particular account will move that country’s contestant physically along a running track.

After each race, the team victories are recorded and contestants go back to the starting line. At the end of the week the team who has won the most races will be given the Gold Medal online at digilympics.com

Under the hood, this funny race is enabled by a Processing sketch that seeks for Twitter replies on each account: a new reply triggers a motor-shield equipped Arduino board, which provides the movement to each athlet.

More information can be found here. And… let’s start twitting for your favourite team! ^^

[Via: Samuel Cox's Digilympics]

embdSocial™ is an Internet-of-Things (IoT) platform usable to provide communication support to smart objects and devices. embdSocial™ is based on WISP™, an electronic module that can be connected to any microcontroller-equipped device (such as an Arduino board, by means of ad-hoc shield) to exploit several communication services:

Each WISP™ allows real-time bi-directional communication through our secure, globally accessible API. In addition to merely providing internet connectivity, embdSocial™ provides one interface and architecture that simplifies common tasks through the use of plug-ins:

• Tweeting/receiving @messages
• Updating Facebook statuses
• Sending/receiving emails
• Sending/receiving SMS text messages
• Manipulating files in your Dropbox

Each WISP™ is equipped with a 802.11 network interface (with support to WEP, WPA and WPA2 protocols) which allows the device to be easily connected with the embdSocial™’s servers; moreover, its configuration is completely web-based.

More information can be found on the embdSocial™ homepage, together with a couple of videos presenting its capabilities.

[Via: HackADay and embdSocial]

@JarroseLaPlante is an installation created by Félicien Goguey and Thomas Meghe.

This plant has a twitter account, you can water it by direct tweets. Since a single tweet can’t save her, she needs twitter friends to grow up!

A Processing application listens to new tweets via Twitter APIs.  A servo motor is bringing water to the plant while sensor checks its the humidity rate (if it’s too low the plant tweets in order to alert her followers).

If you follow the plant’s account,  she can send you private messages.

Go here to visit the plant. And do not forget to water it!

Take an e-ink smartwatch that's got plenty of willing customers, throw in a WiFi-connected sensor box and well, imagine the possibilities. The founders behind Pebble and Twine hope you are, because they have announced that the pair will be connectable through the latter's web-based interface. This means you'll be able to setup text notifications to your wrist when your laundry's done, when someone's at your door and plenty more mundane real-world tasks. A brief video explains how it should all go down, but try not to get too excited -- pre-orders are sadly sold out.

Continue reading Pebble ties itself up in Twine: sounds so rustic, couldn't be any less (video)

Pebble ties itself up in Twine: sounds so rustic, couldn't be any less (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Twittertape Machine prototype from Adam Vaughan connects to his Twitter account via Ethernet, checks for updates twice every minute, and prints out a hard copy of any new Tweets without the need for printer ink.

Vaughan told us that the idea for the Twittertape Machine was born of a desire to have the kind of old stock ticker seen in movies sitting on his desk. After a lukewarm reception to his pitch from friends, he decided to make his dream a reality. Rather than sacrifice a rare original (like the Edison Universal Stock Ticker used for Ames Bielenberg’s Spring Break project), he opted to build his own replica version from some old brass clock movements, a wooden plinth and a glass dome found online.

It is powered by two AC adapters and is controlled by a network-enabled Arduino-style microcontroller running custom code in the base. The board checks Vaughan’s Twitter account every 30 seconds for new Tweets.

The little thermal printer hidden at the base prints the tweets on a cut-down thermal paper. An awesome product in an awesome demand!

[Via: Twittertape and Gizmag]

Many times you would have wished that you could take care of your dog remotely instead of letting a careless friend handle him. The answer to the problem is this ingenious twitter based feeding device by Nat Morris.

Theres a Nanode microcontroller (an Arduino clone with ENC28J60 ethernet), LCD screen from an old Dell laser printer, the stepper motor mechanism is out of a HP Deskjet 500 from the 90′s. The stepper is controlled via a ULN2003 and a 555 timer is used for the buzzer. Theres a pair of IP cameras (ones broke at the moment) and a server process which polls twitter and co-ordinates it all.

So how many more applications can you think of using the same concept?

[Via: webpronews]