Kategorie: Technology
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Arduino brings birthday cake to life
Reading Time: 2 minutesA good birthday cake is all about the decoration. Usually that comes in the form of fancy frosting, fondant flourishes, and crazy candles. But what if you got electronics involved? That’s the question Natasha Dzurny answered when she used an Arduino to bring a birthday cake to life with epic LED lighting.…
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Gender Balance in Computing — the big picture
Reading Time: 7 minutesImproving gender balance in computing is part of our work to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all young people. Our Gender Balance in Computing (GBIC) research programme has been the largest effort to date to explore ways to encourage more girls and young women to engage with Computing. Commissioned by the Department…
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reTerminal E10-1 industrial expansion board review
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe do mean beefy too – it’s larger than the original reTerminal, and attaching it does increase the footprint (and weight). However, for that sacrifice you do get a barrel DC jack, a battery compartment, PoE, improved wireless LAN, mobile network support, serial ports, microphones, and speakers for any machine learning application,…
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Mini Mars Rover
Reading Time: 3 minutesNikodem had to fit the building of his own remote-controlled Mini Mars Rover around his other university work, and there was plenty to do, including designing it from scratch in CAD and undertaking a lot of 3D printing and CNC machining. “All parts were designed in such a way that you can…
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This project facilitates augmented reality Minecraft gaming
Reading Time: 2 minutesAugmented reality (AR) is distinct from virtual reality (VR) in that it brings the real world into virtual gameplay. The most famous example of AR is Pokémon Go, which lets players find the pocket monsters throughout their own physical region. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, but lacks any official AR gameplay.…
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Nifty cam-following plotter can draw many shapes
Reading Time: 2 minutesBefore CNC (computer numerical control) came along, automated machines utilized mechanisms like cams and tapers to act as guides. Those are physical components with precise contours meant to guide the tool, like an artist tracing lines with a pantograph. Such mechanisms are uncommon today, as CNC is far more versatile and much…
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This train of trash bins moves to the curb with the press of a button
Reading Time: 2 minutesOnce a week, millions of people set out their trash cans next to the curb for collection the following day, which many consider to be extremely annoying or laborious. So rather than manually dragging out the garbage and recycling bins, the YouTuber known as Max Maker decided to build a system that…
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Roving Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots make the perfect Secret Santa gift
Reading Time: 2 minutesAs part of what has become an annual holiday tradition, several YouTube makers coordinated their efforts this year for a Secret Santa exchange. Returning participant James Bruton drew Emily the Engineer and found inspiration for his gift from an automatic boxing glove that she built. Taking that idea and running with it,…
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This flip-dot display acts like an Etch A Sketch
Reading Time: 2 minutesEvery year, several of the biggest names in the maker world on YouTube get together for an international Secret Santa exchange. Each participate gets to decide on a gift for the assigned recipient and the only rule is that they must make the gift themselves. Sam Battle, of the LOOK MUM NO…
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Meet Jeff Geerling: YouTuber, ex-engineer, maker
Reading Time: 3 minutes“And sometimes you accidentally short a computer’s power supply and end up with a burn on your finger and a dead computer!” When did you first learn about Raspberry Pi? I remember reading about the first board on Ars Technica in early 2012. I bought my first Raspberry Pi (a Model B)…
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This clever clock displays the time in magnetic fields
Reading Time: 2 minutesYou’ve probably seen videos of people moving magnets near iron dust, which results in the dust aligning itself to the patterns created by the magnetic fields. Magnetic viewing film works the same way, but with the dust in an oil suspension sitting in the gap between two sheets of transparent plastic. By…
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Announcement: Project Hub is evolving
Reading Time: 2 minutesEncouraging people to share projects and tutorials has always been central to Arduino’s mission of democratizing technology. Learning from the work of others is very important as we always felt that most makers like to start from an existing project and evolve from their own creation. If you’ve been following Arduino for…
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Raspberry Pi Pico Plant Waterer
Reading Time: 3 minutesFor Vanessa Bradley and Martin Spendiff, collectively known as VEEB, the scenario came up because their “lovely” neighbour sometimes watered their houseplants, but the plants didn’t always survive the experience. To save any more plants dying, they designed a carefully calibrated mechanism that would test whether the soil was dry enough for…
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The Infineon team’s XXL Chatbot offers you yuletide greetings
Reading Time: 2 minutesInfineon is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, but the company is made up of regular people like any other. Many of those people just happen to be engineers and they like to build gadgets and gizmos like the rest of us. Following a water cooler discussion about who had the…
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Combining research and practice to evaluate and improve computing education in non-formal settings
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn the final seminar in our series on cross-disciplinary computing, Dr Tracy Gardner and Rebecca Franks, who work here at the Foundation, described the framework underpinning the Foundation’s non-formal learning pathways. They also shared insights from our recently published literature review about the impact that non-formal computing education has on learners. Dr…
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K-9 Doctor Who companion
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe K-9 project helped Fitz fulfil an ambition to build a film replica of one of their “favourite companions to my favourite Doctor” [Tom Baker, naturally] and “to experiment with Raspberry Pi and other microcontrollers, and electronics to see how well they might replicate all the animatronic and visual features of the…
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Check out James Bruton’s robotic camera operator
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe’re ages past the time when a YouTuber could get away with sloppy camera work. If someone wants to achieve any level of success making videos today, they need near-professional camera equipment. But even that equipment isn’t enough if it’s still used for static shots. Many makers build sliders and other rigs,…
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Ghostwriter is a gorgeous typewriter with an onboard AI co-writer
Reading Time: 2 minutesMuch to the consternation of those of us who write for a living, AI writers are gaining traction as their capabilities increase. The hot name in the AI content creation industry at the moment is ChatGPT, which is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3 engine. With the right input and direction, GPT-3 can output…
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Predicting potential motor failures just using sound
Reading Time: 2 minutesNearly every manufacturer uses a machine at some point in their process, and each of those machines is almost guaranteed to contain at least one motor. In order to maintain uptime and efficiency, these motors must always work correctly, as even a small breakdown can lead to disastrous effects. Predictive maintenance aims…
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Training teachers and empowering students in Machakos, Kenya
Reading Time: 4 minutesOver the past months, we’ve been working with two partner organisations, Team4Tech and Kenya Connect, to support computing education across the rural county of Machakos, Kenya. [embedded content] Working in rural Kenya In line with our 2025 strategy, we have started work to improve computing education for young people in Kenya and…
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Matter is now available on Google Nest and Android devicesMatter is now available on Google Nest and Android devicesDirector of Product Management, Google Home
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMatter is now available across Google Nest and Android devices.Matter is now available across Google Nest and Android devices. Website: LINK
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Grimmboy is an RFID music player designed for kids
Reading Time: 2 minutesKids, like full-sized humans, love music. But most music players are designed for adult dexterity and user interface familiarity, which makes them difficult for young children to operate. For many parents, Amazon’s Alexa and similar services are the answer, as kids can simply ask a device to play the song they want.…
