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I posted to hackaday.com

Elegant wearable computer

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/30/elegant-wearable-computer/

[Jason Statham] [Martin Magnusson] wrote in to tell us about his adventure in building a wearable computer. The device in its current state is a Beagleboard running Angstrom Linux tethered to an iPhone for internet. A bluetooth keyboard allows for input, while output is displayed on monocle-ized Myvu. And last but not least, the entire setup is powered by 4 AA batteries for 3 hours of life.

Its not as small as some of the wearable computers we’ve seen before, but if you wanted to whip out your own it sure takes a lot less soldering.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- wearable
- Linux
- display
- battery
- aa
- beagleboard
- computer
- sun glasses
- myvu
- angstrom
July 30 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Daft Punk Helmet replica finally completed

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/24/daft-punk-helmet-replica-finally-completed/

[Harrison Krix] finished his Daft Punk Helmet replica and posted about it this week. We took a look at his work back in October but he’s come a long way to pull off a legendary build. Take three minutes after the break and see 17 months worth of work. So many skills were pulled together to make this happen; sculpting, mold making, painting, electronic design, mechanical design, and bad-ass-ery. Crammed in along with your noggin are a bag-full of LED boards but the Arduino that controls it all resides outside, in a project box tethered to the helmet. This is a masterpiece of socially-unwearable geek fashion.

[Thanks Eric & Kirov]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- helmet
- costume
- daft punk
- vacuum forming
- sculpting
- replica
July 24 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Arm mounted light cannon; villains beware

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/18/arm-mounted-light-cannon-villains-beware/

In a hack worthy of the flick Kick Ass, [Chein] built this arm-mounted light weapon. The lamp in the palm of your hand has a ring of LEDs for a nice glowing effect, but the real story is the xenon bulb at its center. The flash capacitor and charge circuit from a disposable camera are used to step up the battery voltage to 330V for an intense and slightly blinding discharge. The charging is started when you press a button on the back of the hand harness, with the flash coming when one of your fingers touches a conveniently positioned trigger. Check it out after the break.

This non-lethal weapon makes for a nice alternative to the dangers involve in playing with fire.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- flash
- arm
- cannon
- xenon
- hand
July 18 2010, 1:18pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Stylin’ HMD

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/08/stylin-hmd/

Watch out, these sunglasses are actually a head mounted display. [Staffan] says he’s wanted dataglasses since ’95, but whats currently out there makes the user look ridiculous, and we have to agree. While his forum posts are a little lacking in detail, he’s promised us more info soon. And for now lets us know at least the resolution, well sort of: Its either 480×1280 or 480x427x3, you can be the judge.

Regardless, [Staffan] is looking for help perfecting the glasses, with what in particular we’re not sure, but the project looks promising and we hope he keeps up the good work.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- home entertainment hacks
- hmd
- display
- head
- video hacks
- resolution
- sunglasses
- staffan
July 8 2010, 1:20pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Heel treads make shoes go

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/07/heel-treads-make-shoes-go/

Motorized treads as a replacement for the heel of your shoe? Okay, remember how The Jetsons had moving sidewalks everywhere so you wouldn’t have to walk at all? Well, there’s a much more efficient way to do it and Treadway Mobility seems to have figured it out. In the video after the break you can see several of their prototype units zipping the wearer around quite happily. We think the best part is that with the tread locked in place you can stand and walk like normal, assuming you don’t feel like you have a block of concrete attached to each foot. Maybe the real question is which is more geeky, this or the power lace shoes?

[Thanks Edward]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- transportation hacks
- motor
- electric
- shoes
- jetsons
- treak
July 7 2010, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Power laces take us 5 years into the future

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/05/power-laces-take-us-5-years-into-the-future/

Back to the Future Part 2 provided a glimpse of a future that included hover boards and holographic advertisements. But you don’t have to wait until 2015 to get your hands on at least some of the technology. [Blake Bevin] has produced a pair of shoes with power laces as seen in the film. Of course present day technology doesn’t allow him to make the mechanical parts disappear so you’ll have to deal with two servo motors and an Arduino hanging off of your heels. But hey, at least you won’t have to tie your own shoes like some 20th century peasant. No word on using these for a little theme music as you walk around but maybe that’s something from the more distant future.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- arduino
- servo
- back to the future
- shoes
- laces
- sneakers
July 5 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Flight simulator but you’re the plane

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/31/flight-simulator-but-youre-the-plane/

[Rafael Mizrahi] built a flight simulator that lets him fly like Ironman. As you can see in the video after the break, the hardware involves an automotive crane, hang gliding harness, plus the wings and tail from a UAV. A giant fan pointed at the wearer allows him to use the wings and tail to maneuver while the Wii remote strapped to his chest tracks the movement and feeds it to Google Earth Flight Simulator which is seen through the head-mounted display. We’re used to seeing intense flight simulators but this is something completely different.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- google earth
- wii remote
- flight simulator
- ironman
May 31 2010, 9:38am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Monitor UV exposure with your sunglasses

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/12/monitor-uv-exposure-with-your-sunglasses/

Tired of those awful sunburns? [Nikko Knappe's] UV sensing glasses will warn you before you become crisp and red as a lobster. The bump added to the bridge support hides a TSL230R light frequency sensor. The device automatically switches on when the arms are unfolded and starts tracking cumulative exposure. If it detects a rising UV level, or you are about to burn based on skin type, an LED inside one arm of the frames will flash to inform you.

This has some potential if you think David Brin’s Earth outlines how climate change is really going to play out. Either way it’s still fun and we give bonus points to [Nikko] for disguising the lilypad that controls this as a flowery hair-pin.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- lilypad
- uv
- radiation
- TSL230R
- sun glasses
May 12 2010, 12:06pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Puppet Circuits

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/28/puppet-circuits/

This isn’t a specific project, so much as a pointer to a budding new site. Puppet Circuits is the project of [Raphael Abrams], one of the co founders of NYC Resistor. As you can probably guess, he has been posting about the circuits he uses in his animatronic puppets. I faces all kinds of problems since may of the systems are to be worn and have to endure some pretty rough treatment and still perform well. Very interesting stuff to read about.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- robots hacks
- Toy Hacks
- animatronics
- classic hacks
- puppets
April 28 2010, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Augmented reality glasses

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/19/augmented-reality-glasses/

Augmented reality is a pretty neat thing but we don’t want to live our lives staring at a smartphone as we walk around. [F00] didn’t either so he built these augmented reality glasses. You can see a hole in the middle of the glasses where he added a webcam. The camera captures the image in front of you, processes it through augmented reality software, then sends the image to the wearable display that makes up the body of this hack. Integrate this into the head-mounted Linux hack and you’ll be able to ride your bike around the real world with your blast shield down instead of being tethered to your trainer in a virtual universe.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- webcam
- augmented reality
- glasses
April 19 2010, 10:54am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

I’m one step closer to Azeroth

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/01/im-one-step-closer-to-azeroth/

While looking for a way to injure his neck and live in the World of Warcraft all at once, [Gavan Woolery] came up with the idea for this virtual reality setup. That monitor, residing just inches from his eyes, is putting out 1080p at 120Hz. His plan is to pair up the motion sensing seen in the video after the break with an NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit for something close to total immersion.

To be fair, [Gavan] never mentions WoW, but we all know where this is going right?
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- 3d
- wow
- virtual reality
April 1 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Reboot Life in a heartbeat

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/18/reboot-life-in-a-heartbeat/

This hoodie senses your heartbeat and uses it to control Life. Conway’s Game of Life, popular in all kinds of electronics projects, uses a grid of cells coupled with a set of rules to mimic the life and death of simple organisms. This iteration displays the game over your own heart, then taps into your heart rate, resetting the game at the beginning of each cardiac cycle. We guess you could say that Life goes on only if you do not.

The EKG circuit that detects the heartbeat is made up of an IR transmitter shining through the tip of your finger to a receiver. An ATmega168 running the Arduino bootloader controls the EKG circuit and resets an ATmega48 which is responsible for Life. [Joe] admits that this is overkill but he’s currently without an AVR programmer; he went this route to make it work. The stylishly-geeky hoodie is taken for a test run (er… test-hop?) after the break.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- arduino
- ATmega168
- life
- conways game of life
- atmega46
- hoodie
February 18 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

HMD upgrade

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/15/hmd-upgrade/

[Banfield Design] has put together this instructable on how to upgrade or re build a head mounted display to be more immersive and add features. Though you can already buy glasses style viewers for your media devices, they can use some upgrades. For one, you have to supply your own sound, and putting headphones on, over bulky glasses can be painful on your ears. Another area that could use improvement is the light that comes in around the glasses. The current trend is to make them as small as possible, but that tends to let your peripheral vision see the outside world. [Banfield design] wanted to make them more immersive, so he built them into some ski goggles. This not only helped block the light, but allowed for an over the ear style headphone assembly which is much easier on the ears.

A functional improvement came next, by adding a webcam front and center. He could now switch between a live feed of his environment and whatever other inputs he wanted. This could be really fun with some augmented reality. He has a list of future improvements, but he doesn’t mention adding a second camera for stereoscopic viewing of his surroundings. Why would you do that? because it would make augmented reality much cooler.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- peripherals hacks
- hmd
- digital cameras hacks
- augmented reality
- hud
February 15 2010, 9:54am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Stroke to unlock

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/12/stroke-to-unlock/

If you’re into embedded clothing this stroke sensor is for you. As demonstrated in the video after the break, stroking the threads in a particular direction will create a circuit that senses and, in this case, turns on an LED. The concept uses two conductive buses on the back of a piece of neoprene. Conductive and non-conductive threads are then added for a furry or bristly finish. When stroked perpendicular to the power buses the conductive threads come together and form a circuit.

For some reason this just seems a bit creepy to us but perhaps that’s only because we haven’t come up with the right application for the technology. We’re pretty sure that a sweatshirt with an LED marquee and a “hairy” back that you stroke to illuminate is the wrong application.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- Fabric
- conductive
- thread
- creepy
- stroke
January 12 2010, 10:32am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Bluetooth bracelet hacked

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/18/bluetooth-bracelet-hacked/

[Jeffery] hacked the Bluetooth standard in order to use this bracelet as a custom display. He took up our challenge to hack the device when we first saw it back in February.

In order to display his own messaged he looked into how the HFP is implemented in the Bluetooth stack. The details are shared in his readme file but it goes something like this: The Bluez package needs to be compiled with a dummy backend that is not phone-specific and that will then allow external manipulation of the data being sent. This provides something of an API that a Python script can manipulate. His proof-of-concept allows for the script to be called with the message you want displayed as the command line argument. This should be simple enough to incorporate for just about any purpose that suits your fancy. Unfortunately, messing with the Bluetooth package in this way makes it impossible to use other devices with your phone, but that’s a hack for another day.
- Tags:
- cellphones hacks
- wearable hacks
- bluetooth
- python
- bracelet
- bluez
- stack
December 18 2009, 12:27pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Scan room, explore virtually

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/16/scan-room-explore-virtually/

[Patrick] directed us to his project for alternate realism. The final goal is to be able to walk around in a space wearing a head mounted display, exploring a virtual representation of that space. This virtual representation could be altered, stylized, augmented and modified in countless ways. It is an exploration in perception, similar to enjoying different styles of painting, we could enjoy different styles of viewing a real space. Currently, it isn’t quite real time. He has to scan a room with a somewhat bulky device, then plug into his display to explore it. Being able to scan quickly and reliably enough shouldn’t be far off. [Patrick] notes that others have done almost real time scans at home already.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- home entertainment hacks
- 3d
- portable video hacks
- hmd
- laser
- laser hacks
- vr
- scan
December 16 2009, 9:23am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Tiny keyboard/touchpad has “hack” written all over it

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/26/tiny-keyboardtouchpad-has-hack-written-all-over-it/

Yes, we know, this is not a hack, yet it just has the vibe of something we’ll likely be seeing in many small form-factor systems and wearable hacks in the future.

The USB Wireless Handheld Keyboard is a diminutive keyboard and mouse replacement with a passing resemblance to a BlackBerry PDA — where the screen has been replaced with a laptop-style trackpad sensor. This seems a shoo-in for home theater PC use; it’s unobtrusive and won’t look out of place on the coffee table alongside the universal remote. But any tiny system requiring only occasional input could likely benefit.

The keyboard layout is funky as heck, though likely adequate for its intended use of couch web-surfing and interactive messaging (or whatever wild applications our readers will surely come up with). A USB wireless receiver and a charging cable are included in the $62 package. Video after the break…

[USB Geek via Engadget]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- peripherals hacks
- keyboard
- wireless
- pcs hacks
- wearable
- mouse
- usb
- trackpad
- htpc
November 26 2009, 9:52am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Make any gloves work with a touch screen

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/25/make-any-gloves-work-with-a-touch-screen/

The chill of autumn is upon us, and with it comes the awkward sport of trying to work touch-sensitive phones and gadgets with gloved fingers. One can try toughing it out with fingerless gloves, or we’ve seen some costly solutions in the forms of specialized gloves and capacitive-compatible styluses, but sometimes simple is best: all it takes is a few stitches of conductive thread in the fingertips.

Conductive thread is available from various sources; SparkFun Electronics comes naturally to mind, but most vendors carrying the LilyPad Arduino will stock a suitable thread as well. Don’t fret if you’ve never sewn before — just a few simple loops are required, and it doesn’t need to be especially tidy. In principle this should work for trackpads and capacitive mice as well, if you use those in the field. For multitouch devices, add a separate conductive bit to each fingertip.

[via Lifehacker]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- Sewing
- conductive
- touchscreen
- touch
- iphone hacks
- capacitive
- e-textiles
- thread
November 25 2009, 4:06pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

TI sports watch for hacking

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/25/ti-sports-watch-for-hacking/

How would you like to have a 3-axis accelerometer, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, RF wireless, and an LCD screen in a development package? What if we told you that you can have it in the form factor of a wristwatch offering from Texas Instruments? How much would you pay for such a device? Quit guessing, you can pick it up for just $49 with an estimated delivery in mid-February of next year.

Our tip-line has been packed with emails about this since it was announced on Monday. The device ships with the firmware to serve as a sports watch with heart rate monitor. The price is pretty good just for that functionality but this package also includes a USB programming and emulation dongle so that you can develop your own firmware. It looks like the included development software is written for Windows but we’re hoping you can get it running on other platforms as well.

The LCD is a segment display, so you won’t see DOOM running on board. That said, we expect your first project to turn this into a wireless controller using the buttons and accelerometer.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- texas instruments
- usb
- development
- RF
- wristwatch
November 25 2009, 10:55am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Tauntaun costume

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/16/tauntaun-costume/

[Scott Holden] went all out this year and built an amazing Tauntaun costume. The Tauntaun from Star Wars was massive, standing 8 feet tall, and usually carrying a rider. [Scott] wanted to make it the correct size, and ultimately pulled it off. He had to build custom stilts to get the leg angle correct as drywall stilts were too straight. The rest is mainly pvc and fur. We think he did a fantastic job on this. The effect is quite nice, and we can imagine that in person it is even better.

Take note at the bottom of page 3. Apparently, he got pinned in the costume in his workshop and almost had to spend the night on the floor in the costume. That’s pretty wild, at least he was warm.

[via makezine]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- home entertainment hacks
- Halloween
- costume
- tauntaun
November 16 2009, 11:48am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Biking through Google street view

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/11/biking-through-google-street-view/

[Aki] wanted to do some stationary cycling to get in shape. Unfortunately, his stationary cycle is located in his garage which doesn’t supply much inspiration or amusement. His solution was to build a VR rig so that he could ride around inside google street view. He has rigged a simple sensor to his wheel to determine his speed and he’s using a vuzix VR 920 as a display and orientation sensor. While he notes that it isn’t perfect, or even reliable, we think it is pretty cool. He can go sight-seeing, while getting in shape from his own garage. We have to wonder if he gets a headache after a while though.
- Tags:
- google hacks
- wearable hacks
- home entertainment hacks
- peripherals hacks
- virtual reality
- street view
November 11 2009, 3:18pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

EyeWriter is the fruit of the KanEye project

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/11/eyewriter-is-the-fruit-of-the-kaneye-project/

The EyeWriter is an open source eye tracking initiative. This is the mature version of the KanEye project we covered in April. Collaboratively developed by Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, and the Graffiti Research Lab, they seek to aid a friend of theirs who suffers from the degenerative muscle disease ALS.

They’ve come a long way since we last looked in on the progress. The hardware used is pretty much the same: a set of sunglasses sans lenses with the CCD from a Sony PlayStation 3 Eye mounted in front of one eye. IR LEDs surround the CCD and point at the eye to increase the contrast between pupil and the rest of the eye. The major improvement comes with the software. Eye tracking appears to be extremely precise and they’ve written a custom drawing program to take advantage of their interface. Check in on their developer page for source code and a video walk-through of the software.

After the break you can see video of [Tempt1] using the system to create some tags. We’re thankful for the success this project has seen as this guy can do a lot better with his eye than we can with our hands.

[Thanks Jessee]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- peripherals hacks
- sony
- playstation 3
- eye tracking
- kaneye
- eye
- eyewriter
- graffiti research lab
- tempt1
November 11 2009, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Electronic Jewelry

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/05/electronic-jewelry/

[Ellindsey000] posted this neat little pendant to his flickr stream. We like the way it looks, and the fact that it is a functional circuit. The schematic is even pretty neat. We would maybe wear this, as a belt buckle or something. When we looked at this though, we thought it looked really familiar. Yeah, it kind of looks like the arc reactor from Iron Man, but what we thought of was this cool looking walker. As you could probably already tell, it’s the same person. Great job again [Ellindsey000], and thanks for posting the schemtaic.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- led
- Jewelry
- led hacks
November 5 2009, 1:16pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Woz’s watch makes air travelers nervous

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/wozs-watch-makes-air-travelers-nervous/

[Steve Wozniak], Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world, lives a hacker life you couldn’t even dream about. The folks over at medGadget ran into him and learned about his watch. In their interview (embedded after the break) [Steve] shows off the Nixie tube wristwatch that we can only assume he created himself.

The watch consists of two tiny tubes, a PCB, and battery. There must be an accelerometer in there because the display is switched off unless the watch is held at a certain configurable angle. Once held in the correct position the display flashes the hours, then the minutes.

The time is set by two buttons inside the watch’s case. [Steve] goes on to explain the trepidation his fellow passengers have when he disassembles the watch mid-flight and starts to monkey around with the buttons inside. Not to be stopped at electronic tomfoolery, he also shares his delight in sneaking ceramic knives on board so that he can properly cut his steaks.

Lifestyle aside, the small Nixie clock packages we’ve seen don’t even come close to this. We assume this is pretty hard on the battery and wonder if the watch gets hot if you’re stuck in a long meeting and constantly looking at the time. We can get over both of those limitations just for the cool factor alone.

Update: Reader [Stephen] left a comment pointing to the origin of the watch. It is controlled by a PIC microprocessor, boasts a four-month battery life at 50 viewings per day, and there’s some code available. It is for sale but currently out of stock.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- nixie
- classic hacks
- wristwatch
- Steve Wozniak
- Woz
November 3 2009, 12:20pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Improved arm mounted flame thrower

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/improved-arm-mounted-flame-thrower/

[Everett] is at it again with Prometheus, an arm mounted flame thrower.This is the third generation of the project and makes some huge advances over the second generation we saw last year. We’d say he’s reached cinema/stage-performance quality with his design.

The self-contained system is completely arm mounted with a fuel reservoir mounting behind the elbow. The new version adds an adjustable flow valve actuated by a servo motor to regulate the flame size. An arc generator has been incorporated to replace the lighter from the last version. A microcontroller measures wrist angle and takes care of creating the arc and regulating the fuel supply.

Prometheus is small, controllable, and frightening. See a full demonstration as well as some video of the prototyping process after the break. Does this make you wonder how much burn cream [Evertt's] needed over the years?

Extended demonstration video.

Build log video.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- fire
- classic hacks
- burn baby burn
- flame thrower
- prometheus
- pyro
- x-men
November 3 2009, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Head-mounted computer with spit, bailing wire

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/27/head-mounted-computer-with-spit-bailing-wire/

Oh, for crying out loud! While we were all giddy reporting on yesterday’s wonderfully done head-mounted computer, [Andrew Lim] of recombu.com comes along and essentially does the same thing with an HTC Magic handset and three dollars worth of Harbor Freight crap. Linux kernel, WiFi, accelerometer, the whole nine yards. Consider our collective ass handed to us.

Funny thing is, either of these could be considered The Consummate Hack. One flaunting the creator’s know-how with its custom-designed parts and delicate engineering, the other exhibiting a more punk flair with random scraps and off-the-shelf technology achieving much the same effect — a solution so obvious we were blind to it. Whatever your outlook, this is a great day to be a hacker!

[via slashdot]
- Tags:
- cellphones hacks
- android
- htc
- wearable hacks
- hmd
- wearable
- android hacks
- ghetto
- classic hacks
- phone hacks
October 27 2009, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Head-mounted computer with Linux, WiFi

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/26/head-mounted-computer/

Most wearable computers we’ve seen feature a head-mounted display tethered to a small PC system in a backpack or worn on a belt. Here’s a slick little system that does away with the cord, fitting the entire system in the glasses.

[Pascal Brisset’s] WXHMD is based on the tiny Gumstix Overo Fire computer-on-module which features a beefy, 3D-capable OMAP processor that runs Linux. The Gumstix is interfaced with a Vuzix VR920 head-mounted display that includes a three-axis accelerometer and compass. Tying these together is a custom video digital-to-analog converter board of [Pascal’s] own design, created using direct-to-PCB inkjet printing techniques. For less than $1,000 total in parts, the result is a spatially aware six ounce computer, with display and battery and all, that fits neatly over the bridge of one’s nose.

It’s a fantastic hack and a nicely documented project, though even the device’s creator himself questions whether having a pair of microwave transceivers and a LiPo battery strapped directly over one’s eyes and brain is such a good idea.

[thanks w3pt]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- hmd
- wearable
- Linux
- omap
- gumstix
- linux hacks
- classic hacks
October 26 2009, 5:20pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Tying the knot with MakerBot

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/16/tying-the-knot-with-makerbot/

De Beers would have you believe that only diamonds will do, but hackers are hardly ones to follow convention. How better to say “I love you” than with a MakerBot-extruded black ABS engagement ring? [Adam Elkins] did just that, creating the design with a combination of GIMP, SketchUp and Blender, then producing the final output on a MakerBot at Philadelpha hacker space Hive.

From the steampunk wedding at the 2008 Maker Faire, to the science-meets-romance web comic xkcd, hackers certainly have some unique ways of expressing their devotion. What are some of the wildest or most charming that you’ve seen? Comments are open…speak now or forever hold your peace.

Oh, and the engagement ring? She accepted. Congratulations to the lucky couple!

[via MakerBot blog]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- cnc hacks
- makerbot
- engagement
- love
- marriage
- proposal
- ring
October 16 2009, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED Pocket Watch

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/14/led-pocket-watch/

Today, it is not difficult to find all kinds of watches with LED displays. After [Paul]’s grandfather, a master horologist and pocket watch collector, passed away, he decided to retrofit a broken watch left to him with a custom LED face. Starting from scratch, he designed a PCB complete with 133 (hand soldered) LEDs, room for a temperature controlled oscillator for real time clock capabilites, a LiPo battery, and a cell phone vibrator to provide a simulated “second hand tick” feeling. The whole watch is powered by a PIC 16F946.

This is currently version 1, and he has already begun work on version 2. He plans on adding a more compact, lower power TCXO, automatic NTP syncing, and a USB port for charging and reprogramming. He has a number of detailed videos, and we have a demo video after the break.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- led
- watch
- pocket
October 14 2009, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Daft Punk replica helmet

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/13/daft-punk-replica-helmet/

For all their varied and entertaining uses, circuits and code comprise only part of the complete hacking experience. To really put your project over the top, sooner or later you’ll want to possess some physical fabrication skills. Consider the works of [Ben Heckendorn]: He’s always done a fantastic job with the electronics, but it’s the fit and finish of the enclosures that make him a legend.

“Fabrication” usually conjures images of shop tools — saws and sanders and drills — all tremendously useful skills worth learning, and easily within reach of most home shops or garages. Recently, the techniques of mold making and casting have seen something of a DIY renaissance. Mold making is nothing new, the basic concepts go back millennia, but in just the past few years the materials for extremely high-quality molds have become safer, simpler to use, and easier to acquire.

This being Halloween month, what better example of the medium than this impeccable replica helmet styled after half of the musical duo Daft Punk (a recurring theme among Hack a Day contributors), created by prop maker [Harrison Krix]. After sculpting an original master part (from common hardware store and art store materials, we might add), a one-piece flexible mold is built up from silicone, which captures every minute detail, and later the helmet form is cast from a thin layer of resin. The visor is vacuum formed. A follow-up with the internal electronics build is yet to be posted, but even at this stage the shell alone is so refined it looks straight off a showroom floor. If mold making can do this for someone’s noggin, imagine what it can do for your next creative hardware project. Smooth-On, a major supplier of these materials, has a free PDF introduction and a set of tutorials on their web site.

[thanks Wolf]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- misc hacks
- helmet
- costume
- daft punk
- mold
- cosplay
- resin
- silicone
October 13 2009, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

A bright way to cycle

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/04/a-bright-way-to-cycle/

Want to be visible when cycling at night? [Neon Dean] came up with this possible solution, which he cruised on at Nuit Blanche. Its a bicycle with neon lights mounted on every surface possible. [Dean], who gave a similar treatment to his car, explained how it worked. All of the tubes take their power from a 12VDC battery he carries in a fanny pack. 12V is a far too low voltage to power the tubes, so a step up transformer is used to bring that number way up. [Dean] also decided to install a neon tube on each wheel. In order to deliver power to them, he mounted a rotor on each wheel, with two conductive tracks running close to the edge of each rotor. Two strips of steel act as brushes (in a manner similar to those on slot cars), and deliver the stepped-up power to the tubes. One creative, but perhaps not so bright, idea is [Dean]’s neon tube helmet.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- transportation hacks
- neon
- bicycle
- brushes
- nuit blanche
- dean
- transformer
October 4 2009, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Halloween prop: portable black light

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/02/halloween-prop-portable-black-light/

[Joshua] wrote in to show us this great Halloween tip. He wanted to take his 4 foot long black light along with him on Halloween. You can buy portable versions, but he realized he had enough parts laying around to slap together a portable one himself. He pulled the inverter from a scanner light and wired it up to a couple of 9 volt batteries. Knowing he would probably need a fresh set during the night, he actually wired in some extras with a switch to control which was powering the unit. We know this isn’t the best solution, but you could probably toss this together in just a few minutes.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- home hacks
- Halloween
- light
- inverter
October 2 2009, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Power generating backpack

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/01/power-generating-backpack/

In the military, you have to carry tons of stuff. This is something we hear and see all the time. They are always trying to come up with ways to reduce the weight or quantity of the things that you bring into the field. This power generating backpack harnesses the natural up and down motion of your steps to produce power. This could reduce the amount of batteries carried into the field greatly. That’s what they say anyway, how many batteries do soldiers normally carry around? Aside from that point, we think it is pretty cool. We could see using this to keep our cell phone or GPS charged on long hiking and camping trips. You could also build something of your own to work similarly.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- tool-hacks
- military
- generator
- green hacks
October 1 2009, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Pinch control2: laser drawing

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/28/pinch-control2-laser-drawing/

[atduskgreg] posted this cool looking rig. That’s a batting glove, chopped up and equipped with a flex sensor and a pressure sensor. The end goal was to create a new method of drawing. You can see he’s interfaced with the servos decently. It seems fairly responsive and intuitive. Looking at his results though, make us wonder if all that effort was worth it. We would probably apply this rig to some kind of animatronics.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- flex
- laser
- arduino hacks
- pressure
- pinch
September 28 2009, 5:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Pong on your wrist

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/28/pong-on-your-wrist/

[John] wanted to take a pong clock and put it in a wristwatch form factor. Take an afternoon and pour over his detailed build logs. This multi-year project is done with meticulous cleanliness that makes us jealous. He’s milled the case and buttons himself, achieving a professional look that equals or surpasses the quality of some commercially available “gaming” watches. The project centers around an OLED display driven by a TI MSP430F2013 processor. Don’t miss the video after the break covering prototyping, PCB work, case milling, and the watch in action. Currently, this is the third generation of development but with a project this exciting, are you ever really finished?

[Thanks Chris]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- msp430
- cnc
- pong
- oled
- clock
- ti
- watch
- milling
- wristwatch
September 28 2009, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Life size animatronic wolf tail

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/09/life-size-animatronic-wolf-tail/

We’re not 100% sure the usefulness of this hack, but it is extremely interesting regardless and will probably make a lot of furries happy. WolfTronix presents their method for creating a realistic animatronic wolf tail. It uses an Atmel MCU controlling two servos alongside a mess of Klixx toys and paper clips to produce a nice wag motion. The guide is extremely detailed and looks to be fun, so long as you don’t mind the monotonous task of shaving off potentially hundreds of ‘nubs’ as they call them. Either way, you’ll definitely have the best (and only…) tail on the block.

Thanks [J. Peterson]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- misc hacks
- Atmel
- animatronic
- klixx
- motion
- tail
- wolf
September 9 2009, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Humanoid Robot + Homebrew Waldo = Big Smiles

http://hackaday.com/2009/08/24/humanoid-robot-homebrew-waldo-big-smiles/

Robot enthusiast [Vitalijus Rodnovas] built this rig to allow a humanoid robot to mimic his own body movements in real time. [Rodonovas] refers to his man-machine interface as a “master-slave suit,” but elsewhere this is often called a waldo after a prescient 1942 [Robert Heinlein] novella. This project page is slight on details and is mostly written in his native Lithuanian, but the pictures speak volumes, and with a little help from Google Translate we can learn the essential facts: The robot itself is a commercially-available kit, the Kondo KHR-1HV from Japan. The custom-built harness uses a collection of surplus Soviet-era military potentiometers (acquired on eBay) to read the positions of his elbows and shoulders, then an ATmega8-based interface board translates these readings into motion commands sent to the robot’s onboard controller. Some additional notes and code can be found on the RoboSavvy Forum.

Does it work? Just watch. His grin as the video progresses is infectious!

Hack a Day has previously covered other Waldos, but this latest deserves style points for its lightweight simplicity.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- robots hacks
- AVR
- microcontroller
- robot
- Atmel
- servo
- humanoid
- atmega8
- potentiometer
- waldo
August 24 2009, 8:47am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Modular computing

http://hackaday.com/2009/08/20/modular-computing/

This is the Illuminato X Machina, a “cellular” style computing system. Each unit is a fully functioning computer with its own processor, storage and communications. You can watch above as a change in the operating software is propagated across the grid. You can see the LEDs in the video going nuts, there are actually LEDs on the sides too. [Justin] described it to us as a personal fireworks show on your desk. This system is fully open with the schematics and source code available on their site. You might recognize these guys too, we covered their Open Source GameBoy.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- pcs hacks
- serial
- parallel
- modular
August 20 2009, 9:41am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Hackit: Ideal conference badge?

http://hackaday.com/2009/08/11/hackit-ideal-conference-badge/

In 2006, Defcon 14 premiered a unique electronic badge. All it did was blink, but it raised the bar for what was expected from a hacker conference badge. In 2007, they went from 2 LEDs to 95 in a scrolling marquee. Along with a POV mode, the badge had two capacitive switches to let the user edit the displayed text. Defcon 16’s badge featured an IR transmitter and receiver for transferring files from an SD card. It worked as a TV-B-Gone and had pads to access a USB bootloader. That was the same year that The Last Hope debuted their RFID tracking badges.

This year the official Defcon badge reacted to sound, but they were no longer the only game in town. Ninja Networks brought their 10 character party badges with a built in debugger. The Arduino compatible HackTheBadge 1.0 also made an appearance. With these new entrants into the field, we wondered what you’d want to see in your ideal badge. What badge would you want to see at next year’s Defcon? Leave you comments below and keep in mind that it should be an idea that is easy to cheaply mass produce.

[Photo: Ninja Networks]
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- cons
- defcon
- ir
- rfid
- the last hope
- badge
- ninja networks
August 11 2009, 7:05pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

HackTheBadge 1.0

http://hackaday.com/2009/08/10/hackthebadge-1-0/

[Martin] tipped us off to HackTheBadge 1.0. Possibly more elusive than the NinjaBadge, HackTheBadge has a Dpad, a 3×5 LED matrix, Arduino compatable headers, and 46 GPIO channels. You can download the open source plans if you didn’t get one at Defcon. You probably didn’t, there were only 14 given out. You can also order one pre assembled. This makes us wonder, does being low in quantity qualify this as elusive?
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- defcon
- badge
August 10 2009, 4:06pm | More »

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