Hand tracking pong project

Hand-Tracking-Pong

Hanting Lu and Kedari Elety, students in Cornell University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering, have written a detailed explanation of their Hand tracking pong project, a pong game which was controlled by tracking the player’s hand:

The NTSC video signal from the camera is stored in the SDRAM at the rate of the TV Decoder Line clock (TD_CLK). Data is read from the SDRAM each time the VGA requests data. The data from the SDRAM is in YUV format which needs to be converted to RGB before sending it to the VGA. For skin detection, we added a filter at this converting module level such that in addition to the R,G and B values, the module also outputs a one bit binary 1 if it corresponds to a skin pixel. Else, zero. By doing this, the output on the VGA is now white corresponding to skin pixels and black otherwise

Via Hacked Gadgets.

Check out the video after the break.

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DipCortex – GPIO Intro video and guide

DipCortex – GPIO Intro video and guide by SolderSplashLabs:

This video takes you through the setup procedure, importing our codebase from GitHub, running through the code. Building it and boot-loading the bin file over the USB connection.

These guides are applicable for both the DipCortex’s and the up coming SolderBridges that use the same processors. We hope they are useful, if you have a preference for the subject of the next guide let us know!

DIY 3d laser scanner


Alessandro Grossi developed this DIY 3d scanner. The primary ingredients in this project are readily available and include a line laser, an Arduino, stepper motor, stepper motor driver (up to 12800 steps), 12V power supply, IR LED and a digital SLR camera. While he wrote the image processing script for Matlab, he notes that it should also be portable to GNU Octave.

The principle behind this scanner is the typical one of a line scanner. A laser beam intercepts the body to be measured and a camera, positioned at a known angle and distance shoots a series of images. With some trigonometry considerations and optics law is relatively easy to reconstruct the Zeta dimension, the measure of the distance between the body and the camera.

Via the contact form.

#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs

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Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters.

Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week:

  • Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch it every Sunday, right here on the blog
  • Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
  • Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs will be your friend for the weekend

Some stuff:

  • Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
  • Check out how we mail PCBs worldwide video.
  • We’ll contact you via Twitter with a coupon code for the PCB drawer.
  • Limit one PCB per address per month please.
  • Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.

We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

Arduino Workshop: A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects

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Here’s an Arduino Workshop book by John Boxall of Tronixstuff, a hands-on introduction to Arduino with 65 projects:

Although there are seemingly endless Arduino tutorials and articles on the Internet, Arduino Workshop offers a nicely edited and curated path for the beginner to learn from and have fun. It’s a hands-on introduction to Arduino with 65 projects – from simple LED use right through to RFID, Internet connection, working with cellular communications, and much more.

Get 40% off with coupon code BLINKYTHINGS (until 14/05).

Check out the video after the break.

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WORKSHOP VIDEO #59: How we prepare for the Bay Area Maker Faire

This week we are visiting the Bay Area Maker Faire, so here is a video to explain how we prepare for Maker Faires. You can also check out our Maker Faire tips post, or the wiki version.

We’ll have regular updates form the Faire on our blog, and Twitter feed.

The list of things we bring is flow the break.

Check out our previous Workshop Videos, or Maker Faire posts.

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Bin access to I2C-memories in C

bp_i2c

Thommy writes,  “didn’t find any C program that compiled on Linux for using the binary mode in I2C (or my google karma sucked), so hacked together one. Maybe someone else can have use for it or its source code. Can be found under GitHub.com.  Both read and write implemented.”

Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.

Open book on 3d printing

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Open Book on “Low-cost 3D Printing for Science, Education and Sustainable Development” :

Some scientists from the ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics) published an open book about 3d printing, titled Low-cost 3d printing for science, education and sustainable development.

The book covers pratical issues (printer models, use of OpenSCAD and Slic3r) but also investigates the application of 3d printing in fields like science (including an experience  from CERN), education and sustainable development.

Via Lucadentella.

Embedded Pi bridges R-Pi or STM32 with Arduino shields


The crew at Element 14 has announced the release of a combo R-Pi/STM32 interface board compatible with Arduino shields.

The Embedded Pi is based on the STMicroelectronics STM32F103 MCU and is open-source (see Technical Documents for schematic, layout and BOM). It can operate as a bridge between Raspberry Pi and Arduino shields and in standalone mode as a Cortex-M3 evaluation board.
. . .
Depending on the jumper placement on the Embedded Pi, you can select each of the three modes of operation:
STM32/Standalone Mode: The Embedded Pi works as a base platform, the STM32 controls the Arduino shields directly without the use of Raspberry Pi.

ST-Adapter Mode: The Embedded Pi STM32 controls the Arduino shields, and the Raspberry Pi works as the GUI or command line console to send commands/data to and receive data from Embedded Pi.

Raspberry Pi Mode: The Embedded Pi works as a hardware connection bridge between Raspberry Pi and Arduino shields, allowing the Raspberry Pi to interface directly with existing Arduino shields.

The board contains an ARM Cortex-M3 MCU STM32F103RBT6. For more information visit the Embedded Pi webpage at Element 14. The 48 page PDF datasheet can be downloaded from Farnell. The Embedded Pi lists for $34.

Bay Area Maker Faire May 18th & 19th, taco crawl

We’ll be at the Bay Area Maker Faire on the 18th, and 19th of May this year. This is the big one and it’s a ton of fun. If you’re there please drop by and say hi. On the blog we’ll have our usual Maker Faire coverage and a Maker Faire how-to video.

If you’re in San Francisco early please join us for the Dangerous taco crawl from Noise Bridge hacker space through the Mission District on Thursday the 16th. We’ll meet at Noise Bridge on the corner of 17th and Mission Street at about 6pm. A bunch of people crawled last year and it was a ton of fun. If you can make it please give us a shout via the contact form.

Check out our previous Maker Faire coverages.

App note: Using the WeX timer/counter extension

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Here’s an application note from Atmel:  Using the WeX timer/counter extension (PDF!)

This application note describes the various functions of the Waveform Extension (WeX) to Timer/Counter 4/5 available on the Atmel® XMEGA® E.  It details the differences and improvements according to the AWeX extension to Timer/Counters of the previous XMEGA (see AVR®1311 Application Note).  Included are code examples to simplify the use of WEX in typical applications.  All the software examples mentioned in this cookbook are provided in ASF (Atmel® Software Framework).

Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB

Dangerous DSO v1 - Click Image to Close

We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service.

This week two random commenters will get a coupon code for the free PCB drawer tomorrow morning. Pick your own PCB.

You get unlimited free PCBs now – finish one and we’ll send you another!

Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:

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App note: Techniques for robust touch sensing design

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Here’s an app note from Microchip describing the best design practices when developing capacitive touch applications in noisy environments:

This application note will begin by defining the problems caused by noise, and explain how that noise typically affects systems. Hardware guidelines will then be provided to help maximize the natural signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the application. Software techniques are then covered to describe some of the common methods used to filter a sensor’s signal to increase the SNR further, and then to make a decoding decision based on the behavior of the capacitive sensor.

Reusing old Java ME devices in hacking projects


In this video from the Oracle Learning Library, Vinicius Senger and Marcelo Quinta demonstrate how to repurpose old Java ME mobile devices in hardware hacking projects. This talk, which was originally presented at last October’s Oracle Open World conference in San Francisco, concentrates on different ways to use Java ME for educational purposes, as well as examining the use of robotics and open source hardware, including Arduino, with Java ME.

A 32 page PDF of the presentation slides can be downloaded from Oracle Open World.

App note: RF Layout with Microstrip

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Here’s an application note from Atmel on microstrip layout techniques to get optimal RF performance from wireless ICs (PDF!) :

Poor layout can seriously degrade wireless performance. This application note outlines practical microstrip layout techniques to connect wireless microcontrollers with baluns and antennas. Unbalanced and balanced (differential) microstrip techniques are discussed for 4-layer PCBs using FR-4. Other design topics include PCB stack-up and ground layer practice, QA and PCB production strategies.