The ultimate diggbait: Digg the Physical
The Digg button is a very simple beginner electronics that teaches how to solder and program microcontroller. Once made, this basic electronic project mimics the popular Digg.com website: each time you push the button, the button flashes “Dug” and increments the counter up to 999 “diggs”. The project is completely open source, and documented here including parts list, schematics and code. For those who don’t want to try to chase down the electronic components, we have a full kit ready to go in the Adafruit webshop.
Digg.com is a site that allows people all over the globe to discuss and vote on (”digg”) stories. The most popular and talked about stories rise to the top of the page where millions of viewers will see them. Likewise, this button is a simple project that we hope the collective power of Digg will use as a basis for new hacks, mods and projects.
The Digg kit was created when Phillip Torrone (Makezine.com), Kevin Rose (Digg.com) and Ladyada met up for a drink. They thought it might be interesting to inspire the next generation of technologists and hobbyists who frequent Digg with a fun and easy project that not only teaches but is a lot of fun.
project page
LED/Pad Music Interface
The Monome is a new music interface with LED-backlit pads, a USB interface that transmits OSC and MIDI data to a computer, and — here’s the unusual part — open source, hackable firmware and software interface. Touch the pads, and you can use this as a step-sequencer and remix tool (as in the example), but the real philosophy here is being able to do whatever you want, so think of the example video as just a start.
The key design element is making the LEDs and the data from the pads independent. That means you can use the visual feedback on the pads to do whatever you want. So, maybe the LED shows where you are in a loop or step sequence as you play — or maybe it shows something else entirely. In fact, even if you don’t need a box with 256 pads, the idea of abstracting visual feedback from control information for more flexibility is one that could be applied to other instrument designs. (The Lemur, for instance, is also making steps toward letting you provide visual feedback FROM the computer TO the device, the opposite of the usual one-way relationship. There’s a lot more to be done in this area.)
But they’ve also managed to put this in a very professional-looking, USB 2.0-powered box. That’s a big step for a homebrew device. The only disadvantage of the design I can see is that the focus on buttons mean it lacks continuous control, and it’s not velocity-sensitive.
Monome site
Demo video
Product page
Geek Graffiti Takes on New York
NEW YORK — The group of 12 graffiti artists surrounds its target, a sculpture in Manhattan known as The Cube, and waits for the signal to begin tagging it up. It’s a daunting task — the 15-foot sculpture in Astor Place was recently coated with anti-graffiti paint.
But within seconds, The Cube is covered in LED Throwies, the latest innovation from the Graffiti Research Lab, or GRL, an open-source think tank dedicated to developing new methods and tools for street artists.
LED Throwies, which cost only 75 cents to make and stay bright for two weeks, are one of several DIY, street-ready technologies that the GRL has dreamed up since its inception in February.
Another development is the Electro-Graf, a technique that lets street artists embed LEDs, motors, solar panels or other electrical objects into a wall using conductive spray paint. Electro-Graf techniques give traditional tags a vibrant shine or even moving parts.
via: wired & makezine
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