Multi proyectos 0066

Gameduino is a game adapter for Arduino – or anything else with an SPI interface – built as a single shield that stacks up on top of the Arduino and has plugs for a VGA monitor and stereo speakers.

The sound and graphics are definitely old-school, but thanks to the latest FPGA technology, the sprite capabilities are a step above those in machines from the past.

• video output is 400×300 pixels in 512 colors

• all color processed internally at 15-bit precision
• compatible with any standard VGA monitor (800×600 @ 72Hz)
• background graphics
  • 512×512 pixel character background
  • 256 characters, each with independent 4 color palette
  • pixel-smooth X-Y wraparound scroll
• foreground graphics
  • each sprite is 16×16 pixels with per-pixel transparency
  • each sprite can use 256, 16 or 4 colors
  • four-way rotate and flip
  • 96 sprites per scan-line, 1536 texels per line
  • pixel-perfect sprite collision detection

• audio output is a stereo 12-bit frequency synthesizer

• 16 independent voices 10-4000 Hz
• per-voice sine wave or white noise

Making a speaker is much easier than you’ve ever imagined, and what you need to prepare is merely: textile (or paper), conductive tape and some strong magnets. Try this one made by Hannah Perner-Wilson and you’ll find it quite impressive.

For the Hackathon event last weekend, we wanted to build a robot and decided to go for a kiwi-drive. The kiwi-drive is a three wheel drive configurations that use special wheels to achieve omnidirectional  movement. The robot was designed in Corel Draw (that’s what the laser cutter prefers) during the two weeks leading up to Hackathon and parts were purchased so that everything would be ready when the build started. We also moved the design from Corel Draw, via AutoCAD for cleanup, to SketchUp for a virtual test assembly and rendering to make sure everything would fit together.

[...] The Arduino provides a simple serial interface and does all of the required drive calculations. It also provides an add-on interface that can be accessed using the same serial link and allows up to over a hundred expansions to easily be added to the system. The first two addons will be a battery voltage monitor and an emoticon display.

I recently watched an episode of Stan Lee’s Superhumans which featured a blind
man who used a series of clicks, like a bat, to echo locate his surroundings. I
got to thinking about other blind people and their ability to navigate freely –
without the use of a guide dog or cane. I came up with the idea to use a series
of rangefinders that would take input from sensors and output feedback to pulse
vibration motors placed on a person’s head. As a person gets closer to an object
the intensity and frequency of the vibration would increase – it’s directly
proportional to the distance of an object. If a region was lacking feedback,
then it would be safe to proceed in that direction.

I call my submission the H.A.L.O. – the Haptic Assisted Locating of Obstacles. I
believe this can serve very useful for the visually impaired to have the freedom
to possibily move about hands-free without the assistance of a cane or seeing
eye dog. Technology has undoubtedly made our daily lives better. By using a few
inexpensive components and sensors, I’ve made a device that will allow the blind
to navigate their surroundings and avoid collisions.

By using the QFN32 version of the ATMEGA 328p, 0.05″ connectors, 0402 components and removing everything not strictly necessary, I’ve been able to design and hand build an Arduino compatible board which is very small (20.7×15.2 mm) and ultra light (2g) but has exactly the same computing power of the Arduino Duemilanove or UNO.