SteamSHIFT

Cheap acoustic sensors make surfaces interactive

New Scientist has an article on turning any surface into a touch screen using small piezoelectric sensors to sense surface vibrations -

“A series of acoustic sensors that turn any surface into a touch-sensitive computer interface have been developed by European researchers.

Two or more sensors are attached around the edges of the surface. These pinpoint the position of a finger, or another touching object, by tracking minute vibrations. This allows them to create a virtual touchpad, or keyboard, on any table or wall.” [via] - Link.

(Via MAKE Magazine.)

Tiilt!

… I don’t own a Wii. But as of today I do own a Wii Remote (and a nunchuk). And I’ve had a lot of fun using the Wiimote.framework to hack up this app:

Tiilt.mp4

This screencast shows a simple Quartz Composer composition being manipulated by the Wii remote. If there is interest I’ll put the source online. …
toxicsoftware.com

Graffiti Research Lab brought their portable lab (AKA matte black school bus). They used conductive paint to create traces to power LEDs mounted in strategic locations. Pictured is one of their programmable controllers for cycling the LEDs.

I have known that you could buy conductive paint for a long time, but I think this is the first time I’ve see it and begun to see some possibilities for it. Perhaps in an interactive installation where the viewers are invited to create their own circuits?

Thanks to: Maker Faire (Part 2) - Engadget

Once more, Google does the business! I typed in ‘precision series e-400 sweep generator’ and within minutes I found several really useful links.

There’s a few photo’s up on my Flickr account, but here’s one for starters.

Sweep Generator Innards
Originally uploaded by steamshift.

So on to the good stuff…

Technorati Tags:
hardware, technology, vintage, electronics

(more…)

Sweep Generator Innards

Originally uploaded by steamshift.

The insides of the sweep generator that I bought recently - look at that beautiful vintage electronic goodness!

For those few of you who have been with me for any length of time, you will know that I have been intrigued by the possibilities of concrete for some time now. I have blogged about staining concrete, heating concrete and see through concrete and bendable concrete.

You will probably also know that concrete is really bad environmentally and I have blogged about alternatives like papercrete (concrete made using paper) and Earthskin, a mix of 80% earth and concrete.

So in the vein of the former, if not currently the latter of these possibly incompatible interests, I present: Color Changing Concrete. This is a new innovation that uses heat conduction to enable the display of patterns in the concrete.

SteamSHIFT out.

(Via Gizmodo.)

Mystery Circuits - Sound Gizmos! : Loads of Circuit Bent Goodness

motion dive .tokyo performance package: “The motion dive .tokyo performance package is a collaboration between Digitalstage, creators of motion dive .tokyo, and Edirol. Edirol has enhanced the already famous motion dive .tokyo software by adding MIDI functionality and designing a unique USB powered hardware controller that mirrors the software interface. The combined pieces create a new and exciting way to perform visuals in real time.”

Check out this music/sound generating instrument thing - looks great! Also check out the website

String Thing: “String Thing, by Benjamin Dove, is a cello-like electronic instrument played by stroking or beating metal rods with the hands. The use of body gestures, variable and visible to the audience, avoids the ‘mechanical’ and visually uncommunicative aspect of computer-based music performances.

Four parallel metal rods are each divided into a long and a short section by a bridge element. The pressure and position of the fingers on the longer rod section are sensed to control pitch and expression; pressure on the shorter sections controls velocity, attack and volume. MIDI software converts the data into sound and, through magnets under each rod, vibrates the rod according to the pressure it senses, thus returning haptic feedback to the player.

String Thing produces continuous pitch: notes bend seamlessly into each other. Light from a laser pointer above each rod, reflected as a dot on the player’s finger, is detected by a small webcam in the bridge; this movement controls the pitch.

Video of the prototype testing (wmv, 32mb).

Other work by Ben Dove: Audiograffiti.

“

(Via we make money not art.)

Cyanotype printing technique: “The cyanotype process, also known as the blue print process was invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842 and is still performed today by many darkroom enthusiasts. “