Thursday, September 22, 2011

Makeshift Magazine

Makeshift MagazineMakers of the world

From the favelas of Rio to the alleys of Delhi, Makeshift Magazine is combing the world and documenting the cultural contexts of the emerging global maker movement. Through stunning photography, video, and writing, Makeshift shares the stories and street-level ingenuity of people whose creativity is as much a mode of self-expression as it is one of survival.

For more

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Electronics for everyone

Teagueduino: Learn to Make

Curious if you've got what it takes to program robots, make art with lights, or build speakers? Teagueduino makes it easier than ever to get started with programming electronics. Just grab a board, plug in a sensor, and start developing — no soldering required! Whether you're 8 years old or 80 years old, there's never been a better time to tap into your inner geek.

What is Teagueduino?

Teagueduino is an open source electronic board and interface that allows you to realize creative ideas without soldering or knowing how to code, while teaching you the ropes of programming and embedded development (like arduino). Teagueduino is designed to help you discover your inner techno-geek and embrace the awesomeness of making things in realtime — even if you’ve only ever programmed your VCR.


Make

Teagueduino makes making things really simple.

Want to build a light-controlled alarm clock? A harmonic music generator or a light that changes color based on temperature? How about a magnetic field meter or a robotic frog? These are just a few of the things that have been created so far, and with integrated project sharing you can always share your work or see the latest things being built as you go!

Just plug in a sensor to one of the input ports (for example, a knob), hook up an output device (a speaker, perhaps?), and use the awesomely simple Teagueduino user interface to make it work (a single line of code can map the knob's rotation to a musical tone on the speaker)! And since everything changes in realtime, there's no waiting for things to compile or the device to reset.

Learn

Teagueduino makes learning about electronics and programming intuitive.

Beginners can jump in without needing to know how to solder or write code. Of course, there's still lots of room to grow and we're working hard to make the transition to more advanced topics as easy as possible.

For those interested in learning how to work with electronics, there will be step-by-step tutorials for wiring up custom sensors and outputs. If writing software is more your thing, there will be arduino project templates to help you migrate to working directly in C. And for the truly advanced, the main control board (Teensy++) can be popped off the the Teagueduino board for full-out embedded development.

Teach

Teagueduino makes teaching engaging and exploratory.

Conceptually, we've built everything from the ground up to support a low floor (very easy to get started), wide walls (lots of things you can do), and a high ceiling (capable of very advanced projects as needs grow).

Teachers can browse projects in related fields to get ideas about where to start and build interactive models and experiments in realtime with students to increase understanding. Teach the basics of programming and hardware development, or use Teagueduino as a tool to teach others topics (math, physics, biology, interactive art, cooking, automation, and more...) you want to bring to life!

Technical Details

Each board has 5 inputs and 5 outputs, and a full kit comes with a variety of each (knobs, buttons, speakers, lights, servos, and more). These can be easily combined in countless ways and programmed using the Teagueduino software and then shared with the community to use and build on.

One full Teagueduino kit contains:
  • 1 Teagueduino main board with Teensy++ loaded and ready to go.
  • Inputs wired and ready to use (2 buttons, 2 potentiometers/knobs, 1 switch, 1 magnetic field sensor, 1 light sensor, 1 temperature sensor)
  • Outputs wired and ready to use (2 piezo speakers, 1 red LED, 1 green LED, 1 blue LED, 1 Vibration motor)
  • Servo bundle (2 servos, 1 servo power-up board, 1 5V DC power supply)
Source: Kickstarter site
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/teague/teagueduino-learn-to-make?ref=NewsSep1511&utm_campaign=Sep15&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter]

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Interactive T-shirts by Think Geek!

Check these out -- e-textiles are just booming!


See this shirt and even a proximity sensing t-shirt at: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/interactive/