MindKits News and Blog

Auti is designed to develop positive play behaviours, making it easier for them to interact with other children, as well as teaching them broader social skills. Auti addresses speaking, touching, and collaborating skills. Each area is developed through an evolving sequence of interactions and responses. Auti shuts down in response to negative behaviour such as hitting or screaming, but quickly responds to the slightest positive interaction. Each sensor can be adjusted to respond appropriately to each child’s individual characteristics, making Auti immediately compatible with the child.
  
Auti from Helen Andreae on Vimeo. Read More...

BlackBerry are telling us that their PlayBook is the simplest device to interface with Arduino. We thought we'd take a deeper look and from the looks of this project, they're not far off.
Build an Arduino powered radar with a cool green radar fader screen.

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Getting Arduino to talk to AIR and bring together the best of the physical computing world with awesomely powerful AIR apps has brought pain to the masses - and probably kept me from making my millions in home automation until now. Here's a genius solution that lets you build apps that'll talk directly together without a proxy in between.
Check out the project page here
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Thanks Hack-a-Day for this one.
The guys over at brainwagon just finished up ANGST, the Arduino n’ Gameduinio Satellite Tracker, a build that displays 160 different satellites in Earth orbit on any SVGA monitor. Read More...

John (@Farmgeek) Hart has built an Arduino powered wireless (wifi) water tank measuring rig that takes a measurement and sends the results 300m back to his warm cosy home where it get graphed in all its splendid glory (we all love graphs right?).
It's a stunning display of a set of simple solutions to what seems like a complex and daunting project - it's also something that I've been asked about by MindKits customers frequently. So, here's the solution to dry tanks, cold walks out to measure water levels and global warming. Read More...

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"The science behind gecko toes holds the answer to a dry adhesive that provides an ideal grip for robot feet. Stanford mechanical engineer Mark Cutkosky is using the new material, based on the structure of a gecko foot, to keep his robots climbing."  Read More...

So, it's pretty apparent that this isn't really anything to do with Arduino or electronics but there's a fair certainty that many of you will be keen to hear about Auckmageddon - A5, the gaming mega weekend (ok, I just coined that phrase but you get what I mean). If you enjoy playing a spot of virtual pixel splattering fun then this is a weekend you'd be advised not to miss. There's a good chance the MindKits team will show up and set up an area to let you all have a tinker with some botsand kits so sing out if you'll be there and we'll be sure to keep an eye out. TimMindKits Chief Ninja Check out the details below... Read More...

Quote from the site: "Not exactly a keyboard, but I'd argue that a data logging scale is an input device... In any case, this is a project I did a while ago (~2 years ago). Start with a cheap bathroom scale from Ikea, then strip out all the hardware except for the load cells. Add in the following:" Check out the source article here  Read More...

From http://www.amarino-toolkit.net/ Normally smartphone events are tightly coupled to your phone device itself. When your cell phone is ringing, your phone speaker plays a ringtone. When you get a new text message, your phone displays it on its screen. Wouldn't it be thrilling to make thoses phone events visible somewhere else, on your wearable, in your living room, on your robot, in your office or where ever you want it to occur? Or would you like to use your smartphone sensors, like the accelerometer, light sensor, compass or your touchscreen to control other devices?  Read More...

Arduino modder Matthew Garten took his previous watch, a stingray hide "Biopunk Edition," and wrapped it with pseudo steampunk. It's an acquired taste, to be sure, but a temperature-sensing watch is handy if you're dealing with heat (or steam!). There's also a range-finding feature, Breakout, a trackball and a 128x128 OLED display. The whole kit, a DIY project if we've ever seen one, runs about $250. The temp-sensing functionality can be seen in Garten's Biopunk watch. And yes, he's got a sword at his hip.
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 Laser Command is a game which  is built using a 8x8 matrix LED and an Arduino Mini. The name "Laser Command" comes from an old game called Missile Command. In Missile Command, you are asked to shoot enemy's missiles using missiles. In Laser Command, you shoot using laser, i.e., a laser pointer. The most interesting part in this game is that the game uses a laser pointer as a two-dimensional input device in conjunction with a matrix LED. Check out the video below and the link for instructions on building your own. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehayashi/projects/lasercommand/ Laser Command from Eiji Hayashi on Vimeo. Read More...

Who said that kids couldn't play with Arduino, and that you couldn't bring your favourite soft toy to life!! Read More...

Do you remember those cheat sheets from your school days. Or the ones that you get with computer games? Were you wondering if there was one for the Arduino? Well your wait is over. I came across this great Ardunio cheat sheet and thought you might be is useful. Read More...

We have mood rings that tell us our mood....so what about robotics telling us about our mood? Check this moody project out. Read More...

It amazes me how many talented people are out there in this world. And the only thing that stops them or us is our imagination. So I just had to share this with you. Read More...

So I was looking around my house the other day and thought where could I take the Arduino next? I was sitting on the deck and thought that maybe the garden would be the next step. As luck would have it thanks to the power of the Internet I came across this great little project which I think would be perfect for next summer. Read More...

So you may have heard that  a few weeks ago in the US there was the Arduio Art Show in New York City. There was a huge range of talent from a wide variety of the arts, and I though that this one was a worth sharing. New Zealand wearable Arts had better watch out! Read More...