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close-up image of a philodendron houseplant with electrodes attached, connected to a robot arm holding a machete

In a straight fight between a houseplant and a human, you might expect the plant to be at a significant disadvantage. So [David Bowen] has decided to even the odds a little by arming this philodendron with a robot arm and a machete.

The build is a little short on details but, from the video, it appears that adhesive electrodes have been attached to the leaves of the recently-empowered plant and connected directly to analog inputs of an Arduino Uno.  From there, the text tells us that the signals are mapped to movements of the industrial robot arm that holds the blade.

It’s not clear if the choice of plant is significant, but an unarmed philodendron appears to be otherwise largely innocuous, unless you happen to be a hungry rodent. We hope that there is also a means of disconnecting the power remotely, else this art installation could defend itself indefinitely! (or until it gets thirsty, at least.) We at Hackaday welcome our new leafy overlords.

We have covered the capabilities of plants before, and they can represent a rich seam of research for the home hacker.  They can tell you when they’re thirsty, but can they bend light to their will?  We even held a Plant Communication Hack Chat in 2021.

Thanks to [Niklas] for the tip.

If you’re like most people, you click “accept all” whenever a website asks you to allow cookies. That button is big and enticing, begging you to click so you can get to your content without thinking about the purpose of the cookies. That purpose is usually to serve you personalized ads, but you let the website track you because it asked you in a nice way. To replicate that effect in a tangible way, Guillaume Slizewicz built these Arduino-controlled robots.

“Accept All” is an art installation Nemur, Belgium’s Le Pavillon. It consists of a few small wheeled robots that drive around the room. When they see a person, they scurry over to bump into that person’s shins. And people are happy to let them, because the robots are very cute. One has silly little horns. Another wears a grass hula skirt. Another looks like a jelly fish going through a goth phase. As with Internet cookies, people comply with the robots’ minor annoyance because they are pleasant.

But, like cookies, these robots are tracking people. A Google Coral AI board peers at the world through a small camera and detects people by using an OpenCV script. When a robot sees someone, its Coral board sends a command to an Arduino via serial. The Arduino then controls drive motors that push the robot into the person’s legs. Slizewicz doesn’t actually collect data on the people his robots encounter. But the point is that he could and nobody would mind, since the robots are endearing.

(Image credits: courtesy Guillaume Slizewicz)

The post Adorable robots mimic Internet cookies appeared first on Arduino Blog.

What’s this? Another fabulous creation from [Niklas Roy] and [Kati Hyyppä] that combines art and electronics with our zeitgeist and a lot of recycled bits and bobs? You got it. Their workshop in eastern Berlin used to be a retail shop and has a large display window as a result. This seems perfect for a pair of artists in a pandemic, because they can communicate with the community through the things they display in the window. Most recently, it was this interactive cyborg baby we are choosing to call Cybaby.

You might recognize Cybaby as one of the very hackable Robosapien robots, but with a baby doll head. (It also has a single red eye that really pulls its look together.) In the window, Cybaby comes alive and toddles around against a backdrop that grew and evolved over several weeks this spring and summer. Passersby were able to join the network and control Cybaby from outside with their smartphone to make it walk around, press various buttons that change its environment, and trigger a few sensors here and there. Robosapien has been around for about 20 years, so there is already Arduino code out there that essentially simulates its R/C signals. [Niklas] and [Kati] used a NodeMCU (ESP12-E) to send pulses to the IR input of the robot.

Back on the zany zeitgeist front, there’s a hair salon, a convenience store, and a nightclub for dancing that requires a successful trip through the testing center first (naturally). Oh, and there’s a lab next door to the nightclub that can’t be accessed by Cybaby no matter what it tries or how it cries. Check it out after the break.

There’s a dearth of Robosapien posts for some reason, so here’s what [Niklas] and [Kati] had in their window before the World of Cybaby — a really cool pen plotter that prints out messages sent by people walking by.

Photo: Neil MendozaIt's just an egg, placed in a vulnerable position. "I thought it would be fun to pit a large metal machine against a small fragile object," says Mendoza.

Read more on MAKE

The post Try Not to Have a Heart Attack While Watching This Egg/Pendulum Dance appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

FLRGC76HP7M9BLI.LARGE

We love a good art-related project here at Hackaday, and [Wolfgang's] vibrating mirror prototype is worth a look: into its distorting, reflective surface, of course.

[Wolfgang] began by laser cutting nine 1″ circles from an 8″ square mirror, then super glued a 1/4″ neoprene sheet to the back of the square, covering the holes. Each circular cutout received some custom acrylic backings, glued in place with a short piece of piano wire sticking out of the center. The resulting assemblage pushes through the neoprene backing like a giant thumbtack, thus holding all nine circular mirrors in place without restricting movement. The back end of the piano wire connects to yet another piece of acrylic, which is glued to a tiny vibrating motor.

He uses some shift registers and an Arduino Uno to control the motors, and although there’s no source code to glance it, we’re guessing [Wolfgang] simply designed the nine mirrors to buzz about in different patterns and create visually interesting compositions. Check out a quick video of the final effect after the break, and if you can help [Wolfgang] out with a name for his device, hit us up with your suggestions in the comments.


Filed under: Arduino Hacks, Microcontrollers
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Cryophone: A Dry Ice-Powered Musical Installation

arduino hacks, art installation, cryophone, dry ice hack, musical hacks Commenti disabilitati su Cryophone: A Dry Ice-Powered Musical Installation 

cryophone

[Dmitry] is a bit of an industrial artist / hacker, and he’s recently finished this interesting and interactive audio exhibit called the Cryophone.

As you know, dry ice is terribly fun. When placed in water, it sublimates from its solid to gaseous phase rapidly, releasing carbon dioxide gas and causing a drastic (and sometimes violent) temperature change. [Dmitry's] project attempts to amplify the sounds of these reactions and create music(?) using data from sensor inputs in the system. He uses piezo elements, temperature sensors, and an Arduino to generate an algorithmic composition from the various sensors, which a Mac Mini then synthesizes and outputs as audio in 6 channels.

The result is an eerie collection of noises that would do well in a haunted house or a horror movie. Take a listen for yourself after the break, and if you missed it, check out another unique, audio-based art installation: ‘conus.’


Filed under: Arduino Hacks, musical hacks


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