Light graffiti, virtual reality, and motion control combine to make one amazing robotic sidekick.

Film making has advanced in a staggering way over the last 50 or even 10 years, but what if you were to augment your filming rig with a VR headset and add a camera that automatically tracks where a VR controller is? Jaymis Loveday did just this, and in the video below, you’ll see a very interesting result–he’s painting with light in thin air.

If you’ve ever tried light graffiti, you’re familiar with what he’s doing. The problem is figuring out what and where exactly you’ve painted, and his system seems to solve this.

Later in the video, he interacts with a virtual world while the real world is still in the shot, for a kind of mixed reality filming experience. The possibilities for this kind of interface are staggering, so hopefully we’ll see even more strange art in the future!

… it’s a project I’ve had in my mind since I first used the Vive over a year ago, at PAX Prime in Seattle. As soon as I waved the controller in front of my face and noticed the tracking speed and accuracy I started mentally designing camera tracking systems. I wanted a VR system in my life because I love games, but I needed a Vive for filmmaking science experiments.

You can see more about this rig on his website here or on the project’s Reddit post. You can also check out Loveday’s previous video tracking only version here.

Using eight jack-o’-lanterns and an Arduino Mega, “CrankyCoder” built his own automated pumpkin patch.

CrankyCoder’s favorite holiday, as well as his family’s, is Halloween. After creating a skull that follows people around a few years ago, he decided to take things up a notch with his “Creepy Pumpkin Patch.” His patch includes eight pumpkins on the edges of a path with homemade pressure switches in between. As trick-or-treaters walk by, the patch is activated, making the pumpkins spin creepily.

Cleverly, CrankyCoder employs two pie pans with marbles in between for each rotating pumpkin, creating ball bearings to support the weight. Also, instead of a candle or other complicated electronics, he’s using flickering LEDs from the dollar store to produce a creepy lighting effect.

With Halloween just days away, be sure to check out the project’s video seen here or its GitHub page to get started on your own Creepy Pumpkin Patch.

Les Boites Mécaniques are a set of four automated boxes that produce music out of wood and metal. These experimental instruments enable anyone to explore the magic of making sound by pressing buttons on a remote, which activate each respective device to vibrate, knock, and rub materials.

The boxes were developed by Kogumi‘s Anatole Buttin and Yan Godat for educational electronic music workshops, and can be played either solo or in unison. There’s even a mode that allows users to control it all via MIDI notes on a computer.

In terms of hardware, each box is equipped with an Arduino Uno, a TLC59711 LED driver, step motors with AccelStepper library and a 3D-printed microstep driver.

You can watch how it all comes together to create a unique sound below!

Using a rather large custom PCB, Hari Wiguna made a Sudoku board using discreet LED displays and a physical keypad.

Most people, buy a book and play Sudoku with a pencil or perhaps just get an app. Those that are really dedicated buy a standalone game, but this wasn’t good enough for Wiguna, who made his own electronic board not out of a normal LCD screen, but from 27 three-character LED modules to display the game on a glowing grid. Input is done via a keypad, which uses the grid layout to allow for two-button selection of any square.

Though extremely impressive, it doesn’t yet have a puzzle generator. Wiguna would welcome any contributions for this code-wise!

You can find out more about this project on his page, on GitHub, as well as in his detailed YouTube videos below.

Maker dad Royce Husain and his daughter Zoey have made it an annual Halloween tradition to build fun and exciting new costumes. Following in the footsteps of last year’s El Niño project and the incredibly popular Minnie Mouse stick figure from 2014, the duo is back with another elaborate getup: a Princess Cumulus thunderstorm that is admittedly “a bit impractical for actual trick-or-treating.” (But cool nevertheless!)

The costume itself consists of a cotton-covered inflatable suit along with LED strips connected to an Arduino programmed to produce a flashing lightning effect.

Be sure to check it out below!

Developed by researchers at the University of Applied Sciences in Linz, the proCover is a sensor-enabled smart sock that adds sensations to current prosthetic limbs.

Although work on more advanced prostheses continues, commercially available limbs still lack tactile feedback. The proCover addresses this not by modifying or replacing the prosthesis, but by using a sock with piezoresistive force sensors embedded in it. This allows for the user to tell where on a foot it’s being touched, as well as the pressure applied, and it can be set up to suit a user’s needs.

Feedback is provided by vibrating rings that can also be placed on a user’s body where convenient. A version that detects how far a prosthetic knee is bent has also been tested.

The design and construction of prostheses that can emulate a natural sense of touch is of growing research interest. Over the last few decades, a number of solutions have been developed for the detection of pressure, slip, heat and texture… However, many of the exciting innovations in this field will likely remain out of reach for most people due to a multitude of factors pertaining to cost, accessibility, health status, and personal attitudes towards elective surgery. We introduce proCover, a low-cost sensing wearable in the form of a textile sock that can be applied retroactively to lower-limb prosthetics to make sensing capabilities more broadly accessible to those who rely on these assistive devices.

You can find more information in the project’s 12-page paper or in this TechCrunch article for a slightly shorter summary.

(Photos: Media Interaction Lab)

Developed by researchers at the University of Applied Sciences in Linz, the proCover is a sensor-enabled smart sock that adds sensations to current prosthetic limbs.

Although work on more advanced prostheses continues, commercially available limbs still lack tactile feedback. The proCover addresses this not by modifying or replacing the prosthesis, but by using a sock with piezoresistive force sensors embedded in it. This allows for the user to tell where on a foot it’s being touched, as well as the pressure applied, and it can be set up to suit a user’s needs.

Feedback is provided by vibrating rings that can also be placed on a user’s body where convenient. A version that detects how far a prosthetic knee is bent has also been tested.

The design and construction of prostheses that can emulate a natural sense of touch is of growing research interest. Over the last few decades, a number of solutions have been developed for the detection of pressure, slip, heat and texture… However, many of the exciting innovations in this field will likely remain out of reach for most people due to a multitude of factors pertaining to cost, accessibility, health status, and personal attitudes towards elective surgery. We introduce proCover, a low-cost sensing wearable in the form of a textile sock that can be applied retroactively to lower-limb prosthetics to make sensing capabilities more broadly accessible to those who rely on these assistive devices.

You can find more information in the project’s 12-page paper or in this TechCrunch article for a slightly shorter summary.

(Photos: Media Interaction Lab)

For those living in a high-rise, have you ever wondered what was going on behind the closed blinds of your neighbor’s home directly across from you?

Caretaker is a concept project that explores just that. It consists of a custom-made switch board with which you can control the lights of the flats opposite of yours, providing active entertainment that stimulates your senses better than passive media consumption.

If you want one of your own, simply take a picture of the building that you see from your window and Caretaker will design a laser-cut scale model of it for your use. The prototype runs on an Arduino and is battery-powered, allowing you to freely move it around.

The project is the work of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME) student, Máté Varga, in collaboration with Barbara Sterk, Miklos Erhardt, Adam Polhodzik, and FabLab Budapest.

You can see it in action below!

For those living in a high-rise, have you ever wondered what was going on behind the closed blinds of your neighbor’s home directly across from you?

Caretaker is a concept project that explores just that. It consists of a custom-made switch board with which you can control the lights of the flats opposite of yours, providing active entertainment that stimulates your senses better than passive media consumption.

If you want one of your own, simply take a picture of the building that you see from your window and Caretaker will design a laser-cut scale model of it for your use. The prototype runs on an Arduino and is battery-powered, allowing you to freely move it around.

The project is the work of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME) student, Máté Varga, in collaboration with Barbara Sterk, Miklos Erhardt, Adam Polhodzik, and FabLab Budapest.

You can see it in action below!

Inspired by The Goonies movie and The Room game, Guido Bonelli has constructed a piece of Arduino-controlled interactive furniture to entertain his guests.

After what appears to be a massive amount of work involving 3D printing, laser cutting, wiring, and programming, Bonelli has come up with a puzzle box that shouldn’t need any explanation. Using button presses and other interactions with it, participants are able to unlock a treasure box in the bottom, a working wooden safe!

Additionally, the box tells time in a very unique way. It has an hourglass that is automatically flipped to indicate minutes, and Roman numerals at the top to reveal hours. You can see how it works and how it was assembled in the videos below!

I wanted to create a unique piece of furniture for my home which my guests could interact with. This time however, I wanted it to be something which I wouldn’t have to explain how it worked. Instead, I wanted mysterious scriptures scribed all over the sculpture to intrigue my guests.

At the heart of GoonieBox is of course an Arduino… Effortlessly whisking away my artistically written 0’s and 1’s into a symphony of movement, sound and game play. Taking approximately 800 hours of build time, GoonieBox is my greatest accomplishment by far in the world of Arduino.

You can find more information on the project’s Hackster.io posting, or check out the author’s interesting Dr.Duino product page.