Multi proyectos 0055

The Arduino-controlled Time Print Machine uses an algorithm to “paint” images — portraits, still lives, you name it — out of nothing but splotches of ink. Equipped with a felt pen and blotting paper, it works like a CNC-milling machine. Program the machine to render a digital image, and the pen starts stabbing at the paper, varying the amount of time it spends on each dot according to the gray value of the respective pixel; the more time allotted, the more the ink bleeds, and the thicker the dot.

The resulting images can take up to 34 hours to print and look like bad photocopies, each totally unique. We’re not sure whether to think of the Time Print Machine as the world’s least-efficient printer or the world’s most-efficientPointillist painter. The one thing we know is this: The machine is weirdly hypnotic. We could watch that thing drop ink all afternoon

I finished the (mostly) permanent version of my 2.4ghz spectrum analyzer, and soldered it up. I included 3 modes for scanning (fast, slow, and ghost – like the long exposure on a camera), plus a function to display the voltage on an analog pin, and graph it (for when the oscilloscope’s not cooperating). These modes are toggled through by hitting the big push button [...] I have already used it to help setup my wireless network, (channel, location, things that cause interference), and it is always interesting to see what uses the 2.4ghz spectrum. So far, the things that I’ve noticed on the spectrum while walking around with the analyzer are: 
-microwave ovens (huge disturbance in the middle of the spectrum)
-Wifi 
-Cordless phones
-Bluetooth
-Wireless keyboard
-Wireless speakers
The fast mode is ok for seeing EMI, but for digital signals, the slow mode is best. The ghost mode also gives a general idea of spectrum use over a period of time.

Conference Room Abuse is where people 2 or more people randomly grab a conference without any regard to the schedule for the room. Its a problem many companies face.

The hardware consists of two parts: a display unit that’s posted outside of each conference room, and a controller unit that’s located in Rapleaf’s wiring closet. The display unit shows the current and upcoming reservations and an LED status indicator that can tell you from a distance whether a room is “good to grab”. It also has a pair of buttons – one to make an ad-hoc reservation and one to cancel the current reservation. The controller unit interfaces with all the displays to distribute power and data, both of which run over a single standard Cat5e cable. Both the controller and the displays are Arduino-based.

The software component is a Rails web site that allows for configuration and integrates with Google Calendar. Reservations made via Google Calendar are sync’d with the Roominator, and vice-versa. The controller unit polls the web site for the information it should pass to the displays.

This was made with small steam engine with a boiler crafted from a copper water pipe and carved some wood for the custom platter and base. Add some magnets, a coil for a pickup and a servo that is controlled by Arduino.

What it is really doing is playing 24 music tracks that I preloaded onto an SD card in WAV format. There are also 10 tuning noises tracks that get played when the tuner is turned.

Because this is the first time I did this I had a lot of help. Firstly the chaps and chapesses at Hackspace have been very supportive in teaching me how to use and Arduino, particularly Adrian McEwan and Oomlout. Also Jingle Joe who supervised my soldering of the Wave Shield, Brox who helped me decipher the ancient mysteries of FAT16 and Esme who helped dismantle the original radio… PS I did do some of it myself!

With the help of “some solenoids, relays, pushbuttons, some parts of a cheap keyboard, an arduino mega and a mac mini” , the typewriter can be used to send messages online. Whatever is typed into the paper gets sent, and the replies are automatically typed into the paper, archiving the conversation in the process. Whether our daily conversations are worth documenting is another matter.

Japan musicians Androp built a backdrop of 250 Canon cameras and programmed all their flashes to fire off in a sort of digital stop-motion screen.

Alegria’s rudimentary yet effective system comes from having survived Chile’s own earthquakes last year and seeing the devastation that covered Japan earlier this year. Keen on finding an inexpensive solution for early earthquake detection, he rigged an Arduino and domestic earthquake detector to tweet seconds before detectable seismic activity. Tweeting from @AlarmaSismos, it has already successfully detected every major earthquake that could be felt from Santiago since May. And it’s piling on the Twitter followers.