MindKits News and Blog

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

 

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

Minneapolis maker Michael Krumpus, created this lovely mood lamp made out of LEDs, an Arduino Duemilanove, and glass vials.

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.

 

Day Table: LEDs On

LEDs Off Sensing

The Day Table table acts as a record of the previous day by sensing ambient light levels in its environment and displaying them through 24 LED strips embedded just below its surface.  The rightmost LEDs show the most recent light levels and the leftmost show the light levels of a day ago.  Day and night transitions can be seen, as well as human activity through actions such as turning lights on and off in the room where the table resides.

The table is made of bird's eye maple with a Danish oil followed by polyurethane finish.  An Arduino Duemilanove and eight Shiftbars (a three-channel PWM LED driver) control the 24 LED strips and photoresistor sensors.  With all LEDs on the table uses about 20W.

Light Sensor

Undercarriage

Innards

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.

Makers Stephanie McCarty and Andrew Siu built this fun interactive audio device using a couple of Arduino and miscellaneous parts.

A stand-alone Interactive Musical Device that produces tones and loops. Made using Arduino Boards, Wave Shields, IR Sensors and Servo Motors, sound can be manipulated by physically moving and controlling certain elements of the device. IR sensors detect the distances of propeller blades triggering a corresponding tone to emit from the device. Rotations of the propellers are controlled by 2 potentiometers (silver knobs) at the front of the device which alter the tempo of the resulting tones.

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!

 

Jen Savage of Alpha One Labs combined her software and sewing skills to make this SparkL Motion ribbon necklace. Her first Arduino project, it is based around a Lilypad Arduino, and uses an accelerometer to detect motion and flash the LEDs accordingly. Full construction details and source code are available at her site. Jen's video can be seen here.

So in the spirit of Easter I wondered if anyone had taken mixed Arduino and Easter. And sure enough, someone has made this clever Arduino Easter Bonnet, powered by an Arduino micro controller. Very cute!

Found this great link on Engadget with a guy turning his T-Shirt into an email alert shirt-o-awesome. He used an Arduino Lilypad but you could easily use a ProMini which in my opinion are smaller, cheaper and better.

You probably don't have enough reminders that you're always a little behind, right? Well Chris and his wife Madeline decided to make one more for themselves: a t-shirt that lights up when you have new emails, and also tells you the number in your inbox. Using an Arduino Lilypad microcontroller, a few LEDs, conductive thread, and a Bluetooth dongle to communicate with an Android phone nearby (which has access to the inbox), Chris took a custom printed shirt and rigged up this badboy. It's actually pretty good looking as far as these things go, but we still don't know if we need this in our already alert-ridden lives. Regardless, the video's after the break if you're thinking about cobbling together your own.

The ‘Crossing Wires’ installation in the Gallery at Tuatara House provides a window into the seldom seen world of the science laboratory blended with performance exhibition art.

The installation will offer the public the opportunity to experience  science experimentation and participate in active  dialogues on the cultural, social and temporal constructions of our sensed reality.

If you're a fan of technology and would like to see how it can be used in art then it could be worth you popping in for a look.

You'll find a more readable copy of the flier here