Collaborate Disseminate
Electricity can be a pretty handy tool when it stays within the bounds of its wiring. It’s largely responsible for our modern world and its applications are endless. When it’s …read more Continue reading Ultra-Low Power Soil Moisture Sensor
It seems like most hackers have never played a game without at least wondering how to cheat at it. It’s not that we’re a dishonest lot, at least not as …read more Continue reading Purpose-Built Plotter Pitches in to Solve Wordblitz on Your Phone
Look closely at this beauty. No, that’s not a chopped IBM Model M or anything — it’s a custom 40% capacitive buckling spring keyboard with an ortholinear layout made by …read more Continue reading Custom 40% Model F Keyboard is 100% Awesome
Learning to play a musical instrument takes a major time commitment. If you happened to be stuck inside your home at any point in the last two years, though, you …read more Continue reading Learn To Play Guitar, Digitally
For a standard that has been in use since the 1980s, MIDI is still one of the most dominant forces on the musical scene even today. It’s fast, flexible, and …read more Continue reading Guitar Pickguard Adds MIDI Capabilities
If you’ve got a mechatronic project in mind, a 3D printer can be a big help. Gears, levers, adapters, enclosures — if you can dream it up, a 3D printer …read more Continue reading 3D-Printing Complex Sensors and Controls with Metamaterials
When thoughts turn to measuring the degree to which something bends, it’s pretty likely that strain gauges or some kind of encoders on a linkage come to mind. Things could be much simpler in the world of flex measurement, though, if [Fereshteh Shahmiri] and [Paul H. Dietz]’s capacitive multi-bend flex …read more
Continue reading Slipping Sheets Map Multiple Bends in this Ingenious Flex Sensor
When an earthquake strikes, it’s usually hard to miss. At least that’s the case with the big ones; the dozens or hundreds of little quakes that go largely unnoticed every day are interesting too, and make sense to track. That’s usually left to the professionals, with racks of sensitive equipment …read more
Continue reading Simple Seismic Sensor Makes Earthquake Detection Personal
They may be out of style now, and something of a choking hazard for toddlers, but there’s no denying that spring doorstops make a great sound when they’re “plucked” by a foot as you walk by. Sure, maybe not on a 2:00 AM bathroom break when the rest of the …read more
Continue reading Door Springs and Neopixels Demonstrate Quantum Computing Principles
This project of [Nathan]’s certainly has a playful straightforwardness about it. His Skype ‘Kiss’ Interface has a simple job: to try to create a more intuitive way to express affection within the limits of using Skype. It all came about from a long distance relationship for which the chat program was the main means of communicating. Seeking a more intuitive and personal means of expressing some basic affection, [Nathan] created a capacitive touch sensor that, when touched with the lips, sends the key combination for either a kissy face emoji or the red lips emoji, depending on the duration.
Capacitive …read more
Continue reading Send Smooches over Skype with the Kiss Interface