Planet Arduino

While we adults don’t experience them often, school kids practice fire drills on a regular basis. Those drills are important for safety, but kids don’t take them seriously. At most, they see the drills as a way to get a break from their lessons for a short time. But what if they could actually see the flames? Developed by a team of Sejong University engineers, this augmented reality fire drill system takes queues from video games to provide more effective training.

This mixed reality system, which combines virtual reality and augmented reality elements, makes fire drill training more interactive. Instead of just evacuating a building by following a predefined route, participants perform basic firefighting tasks and experience smoke-filled rooms. Using a familiar video game-esque medium, it gives kids a more realistic and believable idea of what an emergency might look like. It is equally useful for adults, because it challenges them to take action.

That action comes primarily in the form of virtual fires, which participants much douse using fire extinguishers. The mixed reality visuals are straightforward, as the technology is now mainstream. The VIVE VR system can, for example, recognize objects like tables and overlay flame effects. But the fire extinguisher stands out. Instead of a standard VR controller, this system uses a custom interface that looks and feels like a real fire extinguisher.

That extinguisher has a VIVE PRO tracker, which lets the system monitor its position. The nozzle has an MPU-9265 gyroscope and the handle has a momentary switch. Both of those connect to an Arduino Uno WiFI Rev2 board, which feeds the sensor data to the augmented reality system. With this hardware, participants can manipulate the virtual fire extinguisher just like a real one. The system knows when users activate the fire extinguisher and the direction in which they’re pointing the nozzle, so it can determine if they’re dousing the virtual fires.

More details on the project can be found in the team’s paper here.

Image credit: Kang et al.

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While we adults don’t experience them often, school kids practice fire drills on a regular basis. Those drills are important for safety, but kids don’t take them seriously. At most, they see the drills as a way to get a break from their lessons for a short time. But what if they could actually see the flames? Developed by a team of Sejong University engineers, this augmented reality fire drill system takes queues from video games to provide more effective training.

This mixed reality system, which combines virtual reality and augmented reality elements, makes fire drill training more interactive. Instead of just evacuating a building by following a predefined route, participants perform basic firefighting tasks and experience smoke-filled rooms. Using a familiar video game-esque medium, it gives kids a more realistic and believable idea of what an emergency might look like. It is equally useful for adults, because it challenges them to take action.

That action comes primarily in the form of virtual fires, which participants much douse using fire extinguishers. The mixed reality visuals are straightforward, as the technology is now mainstream. The VIVE VR system can, for example, recognize objects like tables and overlay flame effects. But the fire extinguisher stands out. Instead of a standard VR controller, this system uses a custom interface that looks and feels like a real fire extinguisher.

That extinguisher has a VIVE PRO tracker, which lets the system monitor its position. The nozzle has an MPU-9265 gyroscope and the handle has a momentary switch. Both of those connect to an Arduino Uno WiFI Rev2 board, which feeds the sensor data to the augmented reality system. With this hardware, participants can manipulate the virtual fire extinguisher just like a real one. The system knows when users activate the fire extinguisher and the direction in which they’re pointing the nozzle, so it can determine if they’re dousing the virtual fires.

More details on the project can be found in the team’s paper here.

Image credit: Kang et al.

The post Augmented reality fire drills make training more effective appeared first on Arduino Blog.

Augmented 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. So Ryan Chan tackled the problem himself and built a system that translates real world movement into control of a player’s Minecraft avatar.

We’ll just assume that you know how Minecraft works, because you have probably played it yourself. Chan’s project works with the standard game and doesn’t require any special mods — Chan could even use this to play on others’ Minecraft servers if he chose. The system counts footsteps and converts them into forward movement in-game. It also detects real life rotational movement and replicates that movement in the game. But other actions, like attacking or swapping items, require conventional button presses.

The key components of this project are an Arduino MKR Zero board, a MPU-6050 IMU (inertial measurement unit), and two force sensitive resistors. The IMU detects rotational movement, while the force sensitive resistors detect footsteps when worn on the player’s shoes. Four mechanical key switches trigger the other actions. Chan configured the Arduino to appear as a standard USB HID keyboard and mouse when plugged into a computer, so Minecraft accepts the control commands without issue. To tidy everything up, Chan designed a custom PCB that hosts the aforementioned components.

Using this system for Minecraft gaming is tricky, as it requires plenty of real world open space to navigate the virtual world. But with access to a large park, it lets the player enjoy an AR Minecraft experience.

The post This project facilitates augmented reality Minecraft gaming appeared first on Arduino Blog.

Imagine if you could identify a component and its schematic label by simply touching that component on your PCB. Imagine if you selected a pin in KiCAD and it started glowing on your real, physical PCB so you can find it easily. Imagine if you could see through your PCB’s solder mask to view the traces underneath. All of those things — and much more — are possible with this Augmented Reality Debugging Workbench (ARDW) system.

ARDW pairs tracking camera computer vision with projection mapping for fantastic augmented reality examination of PCBs. Touch a component with the special probes and ARDW will project the component’s name and label onto the table next to your board. Select a component or a component’s pin in KicAD and ARDW will project a highlighted overlay on the physical board showing you where it is. ARDW can even guide you through automated debugging by highlighting probe points and checking your measurements as you take them.

The team that developed ARDW demonstrated the system using Arduino Uno and Arduino Due boards, which were ideal choices because they’re open source and schematics are readily available. But ARDW can work with any PCB for which the user possesses design files.

It works with a plugin for KiCAD, which is open source PCB design software popular in the maker community and industry. Through KiCAD, ARDW gains access to the PCB layout and the schematics. It matches those up with the physical board sitting on the workbench and then projects graphics according to the selection and the board’s location. ARDW is extremely useful for all kinds of development, debugging, and quality control tasks.

The post Computer vision and project mapping enable AR PCB debugging bliss appeared first on Arduino Blog.

Researchers across several universities have developed a controller that provides tangible interaction for 3D augmented reality data spaces.

The device is comprised of three orthogonal arms, embodying X, Y, and Z axes which extend from a central point. These form an interactive space for 3D objects, with linear potentiometers and a rotary button on each axis as a user interface.

At the heart of it all is an Arduino Mega, which takes in data from the sliders to section a model. This enables users to peer inside of a representation with an AR headset, “slicing off” anything that gets in the way by defining a maximum and minimum view plane. The sliders are each motorized to allow them to move together and to provide force feedback.

Possible applications include medical imaging and CAD modeling, among many others. More details on the Embodied Axes project can be found in the researchers’ paper here.

Want to see something super cool? Go grab your copy of Make: Vol. 68 and download the Digi-Key AR Guide to Boards app, then put them together to watch real magic happen. 

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The post Make’s Guide to Boards Has a Hidden Secret! appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

As robotics advance, the future could certainly involve humans and automated elements working together as a team. The question then becomes, how do you design such an interaction? A team of researchers from Purdue University attempt to provide a solution with their GhostAR system.

The setup records human movements for playback later in augmented reality, while a robotic partner is programmed to work around this “ghost.” This enables a user to then plan out how to collaborate with the robot and work out kinks before actually performing a task.

GhostAR’s hardware includes an Oculus Rift headset and IR LED tracking, along with actual robots used in development. Simulation hardware consists of a six-axis Tinkerkit Braccio robot, as well as an Arduino-controlled omni-wheel base that can mount either a robot an arm or a camera as needed.

More information on the project can be found in the team’s research paper here.

We present GhostAR, a time-space editor for authoring and acting Human-Robot-Collaborative (HRC) tasks in-situ. Our system adopts an embodied authoring approach in Augmented Reality (AR), for spatially editing the actions and programming the robots through demonstrative role-playing. We propose a novel HRC workflow that externalizes user’s authoring as demonstrative and editable AR ghost, allowing for spatially situated visual referencing, realistic animated simulation, and collaborative action guidance. We develop a dynamic time warping (DTW) based collaboration model which takes the real-time captured motion as inputs, maps it to the previously authored human actions, and outputs the corresponding robot actions to achieve adaptive collaboration. We emphasize an in-situ authoring and rapid iterations of joint plans without an offline training process. Further, we demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of our workflow through HRC use cases and a three-session user study.

Those familiar with the Dragon Ball Z franchise will recognize the head-mounted Scouter computer often seen adorning character faces. As part of his Goku costume, Marcin Poblocki made an impressive replica of this device, featuring a see-through lens that shows the “strength” of the person he’s looking at, based on a distance measurement taken using a VL53L0X sensor. 

An Arduino Nano provides processing power for the headset, and light from a small OLED display is reflected on the lens for AR-style viewing.

It’s not exactly perfect copy but it’s actually working device. Inspired by Google virtual glasses I made virtual distance sensor.

I used Arduino Nano, OLED screen and laser distance sensor. Laser sensor takes readings (not calibrated yet) and displays number on OLED screen. Perspex mirror reflects the image (45 degrees) to the the lens (used from cheap Google Cardboard virtual glasses) and then it’s projected on clear Perspex screen.

So you will still see everything but in the clear Perspex you will also see distance to the object you looking at. On OLED screen I typed ‘Power’ instead distance because that’s what this device suppose to measure in DBZ.

Print files as well as code and the circuit diagram needed to hook this head-mounted device up  are available on Thingiverse. For those that don’t have a DBZ costume in their immediate future, the concept could be expanded to a wide variety of other sci-fi and real world applications.

Do you want to be the very best? Do you want to become a Pokemon Go master? Then here are 5 projects to help you level up and catch 'em all.

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The post 5 Projects Fit for a Pokemon Go Master appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

As part of a recent Microsoft HoloLens hackathon in San Francisco, Maker Ian Sterling developed a new app that interacts with you smart home via augmented reality. The proof of concept, dubbed “IoTxMR,” allows a user to simply glance at a gadget and control it through gestures.

As you can see in the video below, IoTxMR enables Sterling to connect various Android and Arduino-based devices with the HoloLens to create a customized interdependent network. It also features a mixed reality experience called “virtual zen mode,” complete with calming sounds and light orbs in his surrounding environment.

During a recent interview with Digital Trends, Sterling revealed:

The primary goal of the app is to provide a 3D spatial UI for cross-platform devices — Android Music Player app and Arduino-controlled fan and light — and to interact with them using gaze and gesture control.

The connectivity between Arduino and a mixed reality device is something which holds a huge amount of creative opportunity for developers to create some very exciting applications — be it [Internet of Things], robotics, or other sensor data visualization. Besides this, our app features some fun ways to connect devices. Our demo featured a connection between a music player and a light in order to set a certain mood in your home.

Although just a demo, IoTxMR does highlight the endless possibilities that AR platforms like HoloLens offer in the not-too-distant future.