Planet Arduino

My Brainwave-Controlled Zen Garden is similar to a standard desktop zen garden in that you rake sand to calm yourself. In my version, though, the rake and resultant patterns are controlled by your actual brainwaves. If you are tense and worrisome, the rake moves randomly and quickly, scribbling odd patterns in the sand.

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Part of what makes me a maker is that I prefer to do things myself when I can, including cutting my own hair. The tricky part, though, is cutting a good line across the back of the neck. I set out to build a trimmer that I could blindly run up and down the back of my neck, and have a computer vision system automatically turn the trimmer on or off in accordance with its position.

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Today we're launching a new video series: Making Fun with Jeff Highsmith. Jeff is a North Carolina-based maker who says he's guided by curiosity and a passion for learning. He says his ideal project would lead him to learn new things, make good use of his existing skills, involve the creative use materials (too much MacGyver growing up), and result in a fun contrivance that the world has yet to see. He was introduced to electronics through amateur radio at age 11, but didn't start the hard-core tinkering until his first son was born and he realized he wouldn't be spending as much time outdoors hiking and backpacking. In the Making Fun video series, Jeff hopes to inspire folks to cultivate their own creativity by showing them how easy it is to make fun toys and gadgets. With two boys aged 3 and 5, he has toys on the brain, and most of his projects involve creating or enhancing play possibilities.

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