Namely, it would keep me from the daily morning conversation with my seven-year-old about the weather outside. She rolls out of bed each morning and comes in my office and wants to know how hot or cold it is outside. Her little brain doesn’t work in absolutes, so telling her it’s going to be 65° out means nothing to her. She’s also got a lot that fiery Italian in her thanks to her mom, so she gets pretty upset if I tell her she needs long sleeves and a jacket in the morning, and then she gets hot on the playground.

What she needs is this Cryoscope gadget, which lets you feel what the temperature outside is like without leaving the house. An LED glows to give you an indication at a glance if it’s hot or cold outside. The current build actually lets you feel what tomorrow’s temperature will be like, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be used for current weather too.

To build the Cryoscope, Godshaw took a Peltier element and placed it on top of a heat sink with a cooling fan, and a RGB LED on the bottom. The system gets its temperature information from a web-based application, relaying it to an Arduino controller. The controller and the Peltier element then heat or cool an aluminum cover to the appropriate temperature, with a range of 0 to 100°F. Then you simply lay a hand on it and know exactly what it will feel like when you go outside tomorrow. It even compensates the temperature to account for wind chill, humidity and the properties of the aluminum cube itself.

I wonder how hard it would be to build one of these for myself.

[via CNET]

Check out the video. I love the way this thing moves and lights up. This is a hack that any Invaders nerd will want to do, but only a few of us will ever answer the call. Grant Gibson, we salute you.

[via Make:]

Designed by Benjamin Redford and the OllyFactory (get it?). Olly and Molly are USB-connected, Arduino-powered gadgets which notify you when you have a new message by letting you follow your nose or taste buds. Olly is the smelly one of the pair – and can be filled with a scented oil of your choice – and then emit an aroma as a notification. You can even stack up multiple Ollies so you can have different digital events trigger different smells.

Molly isn’t stinky at all. This little bot holds onto some little candies, and drops one into its little bin whenever your tweets gets retweeted a pre-set number of times. Though it doesn’t look like it can hold too many candies – which is good if you get a lot of retweets. You wouldn’t want to start gaining weight from Twitter now? That’s all we need now.

Both Olly and Molly are raising funds now over on Kickstarter – and they still have a ways to go if you’d like one. The fundraising ends on Feb. 10, and still needs to raise another $27,000 of its $35,000 goal. A pledge of $50 or more gets you an Olly, and $55 or more gets you a Molly. Higher pledges will result in various combos of Ollies and Mollies, as well as the ability to customize the look of yours.

Ladyada is showing off a new project called Adalight, which uses an Arduino board and a strip of RGB LEDs around the back of your display to create an ambient color backdrop for your computer monitor. The system automatically detects the average colors around the perimeter of your display, and immediately responds with the appropriate LED color in the proper section of the LED strip. Since it works as a high-speed screen capture utility in the background, it works with pretty much any application on your computer.

Open source software using the Processing library runs on your PC, Mac or Linux and interfaces with the Arduino over USB, and sends the correct light colors to each of the LEDs pixels. See the Adalight in action in the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Pretty cool, no? I suppose it could get to be a little annoying after a while, but it still might be pretty cool for 3D games and action movies. While you can build the Adalight from scratch, you can also purchase a project kit over at the MakerSHED for $49.95 (USD) to help you get started. The kit includes a strand of 25 RGB LED pixels and a 5VDC power adapter, but you will still need to purchase the Arduino and USB cable, and follow the rest of the build instructions to finish the project.

He wired up an Arduino board, connected some motors to drive the dials and attached a controller. You can watch modder alpinedelta32 use it in the video. I know, I know, you’ve seen people draw with an Etch-A-Sketch before, but when is the last time you’ve them use one with an NES controller?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

What would have been really cool is if he had modded the screen of the Etch-A-Sketch to mimic and draw a game while it is being played. Yeah, hit me up when you accomplish that one. So there.

[via NowhereElse (FR) via Engadget]

The central component of the device is a set of resonator bells for kids – similar to a xylophone, but with plastic parts instead of wood – but putting the whole thing together was anything but elementary for Watson. He had to improvise a lot, although he was also able to take notes from similar projects. In the end, he had a pair of Arduino clones controlling eight pager motors, one for each note. Watson made the wooden mallets himself, and also designed the plastic hinges and had them 3d printed. So was it worth all the trouble?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I think this is one of the best DIY projects I’ve ever seen in a while. Watson should probably paint or decorate the board to make it look better, but it looks neat as it is. I also love the fact that you can program it to play songs. I wonder if it’s possible to enhance it so that it will play a different tune depending on who’s at the door. I already have a great tune for door-to-door salesmen.

[David Watson via Hack A Day]

There are five levels available: mild, regular, hot, extra hot, and flaming. I usually go for regular, but I do want to try out the flaming one someday – and maybe wear the Nuclear Taco Sensor Helmet while doing so.

This colorful helmet is actually a discomfort meter that measures just how uncomfortable you are while you chomp down that taco by taking note of how much you’re sweating, notes your temperature, and measures how much of that water + yogurt liquid you’re drinking to soothe your tastebuds.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The sensors that measure all this stuff are connected to an Arduino board and a meter that displays if the taco you’re eating is “no sweat” or if it’s a “hot volcano.” Aside from that, the helmet’s front has been installed with a camera that records every moment of your taco discomfort.

The helmet was developed by a team from altLab in Lisbon and won first place in the 2011 CodeBits 48-hour hacking competition.

[via Verge via Geeky Gadgets]

This real-world version of OutRun was built by a guy named Gustavo. It has little cars which speed down an endless-loop racetrack as the driver steers to avoid obstacles. The controller has a steering wheel from an R/C car, and miniature gas and brake pedals you can control with your fingertips. A scrolling backdrop contains the obstacle cars, while your vehicle is on a motorized track that moves it side to side. LEDs and photosensors are used to detect when your car reaches the edges, and magnetic sensors detect when you’ve collided with another vehicle. Here’s a video showing Gustavo’s analog OutRun game in action:

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The funny thing about this is that SEGA’s 1960s arcade game Grand Prix was actually analog, and used similar mechanical principles, as you can see in the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Microsiervos (ES) via FaseExtra (ES)]

Made by the folks at redpepper, the whole set-up may look like part of a Rube Goldberg machine, but it’s actually pretty simple. But not so simple that I’d be able to make my own Beeri, even if all the materials were given to me and the instructions were relayed to me in the form of a children’s song. The first part of Beeri is a Twitter account. That’s the link between the robot and Siri. The real world link is Beeri’s monster truck. Powered by an Arduino Uno equipped with a WiFly Shield, the truck scans the Twitter account for a tweet with the word “pour” on it, upon which it will deliver the beer in a very monster trucky way:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It’s not practical, convenient or safe, but I’m sure the redpepper folks had a lot of fun building it. I’d like to see someone combine Siri with the breakfast-making machine and Beeri’s monster truck delivery service. Straight into the person’s mouth.

[via TechCrunch]

As you can see, the refrigerator has a large touchscreen for a door. It seems that the concept will only work if the contents are given RFID tags, but once they are, the fridge becomes really useful. With Kreuzer and Schilling’s future fridge, not only will you be able to see what’s inside without actually opening the door, you’ll also be able to see a variety of information, like expiration dates, and recipes which use the ingredients you have. The fridge will of course be connected to the Internet, providing price and location guides of nearby stores for replenishing supplies. But as you’ll see in the video below, the prototype version can’t do any of that fancy stuff – yet.

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If this particular concept seems familiar to you, it’s because a designer named Ashley Legg came up with an eerily similar idea which made its rounds on the Internet last year, and LG showed something similar, but much more basic at this year’s CES show. I’m sure Kreuzer and Schilling came up with this on their own though. I hope they continue to build on their prototype – their idea might be cool, but a real fridge would be cooler.

But if you happen to have really fat fingers and are a pretty huge person overall, then you might appreciate having a larger of the gaming console. Pictured above is the wall-mounted gaming portable(?), although its case , which looks and plays just one of those old Game & Watch handheld video games.

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I mean, if we’ve got giant iPhones (although limited in functionality) and giant bathing ladies, then why not a giant Game & Watch?

The giant Nintendo Game & Watch was made by Tobie Nortje for the reception area of 21tanks. It was built using a computer monitor embedded in the oversize case, while the buttons are connected to an Arduino control board. Signals are sent back and forth from the controls to a PC, allowing users to play games from the classic platform, in this case, powered by PicaPic.

[via PC World via Dvice]

Talk about a rude awakening.

That’s probably what Ed Rogers felt in his apartment every day each time the train would ramble past his window. This led him to mod his place so that the windows would detect and automatically close once a train would go past his window so he could cram a few more minutes of sleep every morning.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So how’d Ed do it? Well, he hooked up some custom-designed controllers, Arduino boards, components printed using a Makerbot, and a webcam that detect the presence of movement, causing the windows to close as soon as a train starts to pass. The windows close a bit slowly though, but hey, slowly-closing windows are definitely better than having to get out of bed to close them yourself.

[Nerdstink via BuildLounge via Dvice]

The side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. tribute was created by Adam Kumpf using the Teagueduino open source hardware platform, along with a few basic inputs and outputs. The game is controlled by the potentiometer on the side, allowing Mario to “jump” above and below the advancing obstacles on the belt below. Notice how it picks up speed the further you get into the level. Magnets behind each obstacle provide collision detection, and the box uses a servo to close if you bump into a baddie. No more game for you! Check it out in the video below to see it in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Ok, I know that Mario is running the wrong way, but dodging obstacles like that isn’t exactly how you play Super Mario Bros. anyway. It’s more like Spy Hunter. Just turn it on its side, change the icons, and add some bullets and oil slicks, and you do.  Still, it’s a pretty impressive little creation, and you can grab the source code for making your own over at the Teagueduino discussion forums.

[via Reddit]

As you can see, the clock has four wires. Only one of them stops the countdown when cut. The other two are decoys and do nothing while one wire will immediately “detonate” the alarm. Obviously the thrill will wear off if the wires had fixed purposes, which is why Krumpus made it so the the role of each wire is randomized each time the sequence is activated.

By the way the countdown sequence isn’t just for the alarm. It can also be activated at any time by pressing the big red button, perfect for Counter-Strike LARPing. Here’s the clock in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Yes, you’ll have to replace any wires you cut, but Krumpus says that replacing them will be easy because they’re attached with screw terminals. Krumpus also made a mock C4 version of the clock, just for kicks:

The “bomb” is powered by an ATMega328 microcontroller with an Arduino bootloader. If you didn’t understand a word from that previous sentence either, fret not! Krumpus will be selling a kit this fall so you can have your own Defusable Clock. The kit will only include the electronics, but I’m sure you can cobble together a bomb-looking device. The kit will also be “fully hackable” so Arduino nuts and tinkerers will get more than their money’s worth with this thing.

[Project Lab via Laughing Squid]

Fashionable concept, but it would’ve been a lot better if it physically restrained you from drinking or driving – or moving – once you lit up all LEDs, and won’t let you go until your breath can only light up one or two of the lights.

[via Cargo Collective via Fashioning Tech]

With the help of “some solenoids, relays, pushbuttons, some parts of a cheap keyboard, an arduino mega and a mac mini” , the typewriter can be used to send messages online. Whatever is typed into the paper gets sent, and the replies are automatically typed into the paper, archiving the conversation in the process. Whether our daily conversations are worth documenting is another matter.

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Daniel planned on using the Stype to chat on Skype – hence the name – but in the demo video above the user is chatting with ELIZA, an early proto-chatbot. I wonder how you’ll send links, pics and videos on Stype.

[via WeWasteTime & Engadget]

The tech in the bag is based on a Lilypad Arduino system. By placing RFID tags on up to five items, the bag will be able to detect whether these items are put in or taken out of the bag. A simple LED notification system tells you which items are already inside the bag – provided you haven’t forgotten which LED stands for which item of course.

As you can see in the top picture, although the LEDs stand out overall the tech is still integrated tastefully into the bag. Here’s a demo of the Déjà Vu:

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Very practical and easy to understand. If you want to have your own Déjà Vu bag, you can get the code and instructions from the MIT New Textiles page. I wonder if it’s possible to make a bag with a built-in bar code reader and a small LCD display. That way you won’t have to memorize which LED stands for which object, you won’t have to use RFID tags and you’ll be able to mark more items.

[via FashioningTech]

The hats themselves are made from wool felt embedded with steel wool to create pressure sensors. These in turn allow the manipulation of sound. The hats use a Lilypad Arduino that was programmed with MAX/MSP software to use them as MIDI controllers. The funny, colorful balls control volume and speed. The LEDs were added mainly for theatrical reasons. Once they are illuminated, it means that the hat is ready to play.

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Watching this made me smile, even though the whole idea seems completely silly.

[Fashioning Tech via DVice]

Rich used an Arduino Pro Mini 328 to translate the controller’s signals, which are then sent to the target device via a BlueSMiRF Gold Bluetooth module. Rich bundled both plus a battery to the back of the controller to make the whole setup more portable.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The best thing about this hack is that it doesn’t require Rich to root the Android device he wants to pair it with, which is really convenient. But that convenience comes at a price – there’s a bit of soldering and programming involved in this hack. If you think you’ve got the skills, check out Rich’s guide here.

[via Hack a Day]

The tiny Skee-Ball machine looks just like the arcade original, only smaller. It measures just 22″ (h) x 16″(w) x 30″ (l) and weighs 25 pounds. It’s even got tiny little wooden balls for you to shoot into those elusive cups. The cabinet is built from MDF, steel, PVC, and Plexiglas. Under the hood of Sam’s build is an Arduino controller, responsible for calculating scores, playing sound effects, and spitting out tickets for winners.

See it in action in the video clip below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Best thing about this build is that you can own it. It’s currently up for auction over on eBay with a starting bid of $500 (USD) and a Buy-it-Now price of $1200. Check out Sam’s complete build log in video form over on YouTube.

[via Make:]