BLOG-O-MATIC

Product Road Test: Lumex Backlit 16×2 LCD Display

Posted on July 15, 2011 • 9 Comments

This is a review of the Lumex LCR-U01602DSF/DWH 16×2 Backlit LCD Display. It was provided to me for evaluation by element14/Newark Electronics. You can purchase it or learn more here. I tested its performance by using it with an arduino and the excellent LiquidCrystal library. I will post an arduino[…]

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e14 Blog Post: Securing our World and Electronics

Posted on July 14, 2011 • No Comments

I’m fairly new to the security sector, so I’ve been brushing up on my security factoids. In this post, I talk about some of the most interesting chip-level security systems that I’ve found. I’d love to hear about any neat security measures that you’ve dealt with! Here’s an excerpt: There’s[…]

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Tutorial 12 for Arduino: RFID Card Reading

Posted on July 8, 2011 • 192 Comments

Finally! It’s been about 3 months since my last arduino tutorial – I’ve been keeping busy as usual. I’ve been working on this one for some time. I got the parts months ago, made an outline a few weeks ago, prototyped the circuits and wrote the code last week, and[…]

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My First (Useful) Makerbot Print!

Posted on June 28, 2011 • 1 Comment

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, or if you follow me on twitter, you probably know that I’m working at Makerbot Industries this summer. It’s been a blast so far – everybody is very intelligent, and truely excited about the work they are doing. I’ve been working on[…]

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Featured Engineer on EEWeb

Posted on June 20, 2011 • No Comments

Is this post shameless self-promotion? Maybe. Does that bother me? Just a little. Should you read the interview that I did with EEWeb anyways? Totally. I’m the most recent “featured engineer” on EEWeb.com, a popular online portal for Electrical Engineers. The site offers a pretty nice community, technical info, and[…]

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Using the SudoGlove as a Performance Piece

Posted on June 19, 2011 • No Comments

I’ve already shown how the SudoGlove Control System can be used to synthesize simple music. However, I used my enrollment in a digital music class this past semester as an opportunity to further expand the capabilities of the SudoGlove as a performance medium. In the video below, you can see[…]

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This is the question that constantly irks technophiles. What is the next major technology going to be? Can we even conceive what it will be like? Or, is it so far out that no words in our dictionary can even describe what it will do? What will the implications be? How will we get to that point? And most importantly: How soon can I get one? The following is a “wish list” of upcoming technologies that I think we are actually on track to create in the next few decades. Despite the fact that I’d love to own a TARDIS, there are no interstellar time machines or similarly complex technologies here. These are only things that we really have the potential to develop. Truly Holographic Displays and Interactions Touchable Holography Holographic displays have been around for some time now, but they have yet to reach ubiquity. More importantly, complex 3D interactions with holographic displays (like in the movies) are still a way off. However, new research and consumer products like the Microsoft Kinect and Wiimotes are bringing us closer and closer to virtual 3D interactions. The key to making holographic interaction marketable will be to develop an intuitive user interface; this will require that tactile feedback is present and realistic. To date, I’ve only found one example of a tactile feedback hologram system: The “Touchable Holography” system uses ultra sound waves at their focal points to generate simulated contact forces from the image displayed in the hologram. Personal Fabrication Machines MakerBot Thing-O-Matic Again, I’m a bit biased in this field since I work in a 3D Printing Lab at my University, and I’m currently employed at Makerbot Industries. But would I be doing those things if I didn’t think personal-level manufacturing was going to be big!? For those who aren’t familiar with 3D printing, devices like the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic allow you to print almost anything you can imagine out of plastic by depositing layers one by one until an object is built up. Devices like this have major implications for the way we lead our lives – could there be a new DIY generation on the horizon? I hope so! Vacations to Space Virgin "SpaceShipTwo" Technically, you can book one of these right now. But, it’s probably safe to assume that you don’t have a spare $200,000 laying around to book a spot on Virgin Galactic’s maiden flight. But just think how quickly we’ve reached this point. It was less than a decade ago that civilian space flight even entered consideration, and now we’re already seeing successful test flights! It’s only a matter of time before price comes down, and you get the chance to try to spot your house from space. Computers and Machines that Understand Natural Language HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey" Natural language processing is one of the holy grails of Artificial intelligence and will likely be impossible to accomplish with even complex algorithms. In order to make machines fully capable of understanding human language (any language), an extremely sophisticated artificial intelligence program will need to first be crafted – one that rivals the human brain. To my knowledge, nobody has a good estimate of when we will reach “technological singularity”, but an average estimate seems to be around the year 2040. Now we just need to make sure that robots don’t take over the world before they get the chance to listen to us . Programmable Matter + Self Reconfiguring and Aware Robots "Stochastic Modular Assembly" This is yet another topic where I do research, so it’s close to my heart, and goes hand in hand with personal manufacturing. The first time I heard about this was during a presentation from Intel about “Claytronics” - a collaborative technology being developed with Carnegie Mellon University. Programmable matter would permit for the instantaneous modeling and reconfiguration of 3D objects in the physical world – Think play-doh on steroids.

e14 Blog Post: What’s Next?

Posted on June 15, 2011 • No Comments

This latest element14 blog is basically me predicting the future. So, if you want something to tease me about in a few decades when none of these things have come to fruition, you should read this latest post. Here’s an excerpt: What’s Next? This is the question that constantly irks[…]

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Open Source Ecology

Posted on June 10, 2011 • 1 Comment

I was just recently introduced to open source ecology (OSE), a movement that aims to develop the global village construction set – all the tools you need to develop a modern community. They’ve already started prototyping many of the tools, and have published all the details necessary to build them[…]

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Audacious Arduino Arguments on the Amp Hour

Posted on May 16, 2011 • No Comments

I’m a long-time fan of the Amp Hour Podcast, hosted by Chris Gammell and Dave Jones. This week, Jeff Keyzer and I were invited to guest host with them! This was an Arduino-centric episode (I’m not sure if that was my fault at all…), but we also discussed engineers working[…]

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e14 Blog Post: Open-Sourcing Your Next Project

Posted on May 15, 2011 • No Comments

Following is an excerpt from my latest blog post on the Do-It-Together Blog. Visit element14 to read the whole thing! The electronics and software industries have changed drastically in the past two decades (well, duh). But I’m not talking about new technical developments, I’m talking about the way we share information,[…]

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