Tag Archives: Arduino

The nostalgic tale of C60 Redux reminds us about the physicality of music, or lack thereof

Design, Images, Technology, Video, , , , , , , , , ,

From a melancholic loss to a tangible idea the C60 Redux was made.

In the book I Miss My Pencil, co-authors Martin Bone and Kara Johnson of design firm IDEO conceived twelve design experiments through collaboration, sketching, and prototyping.  One of these concept designs is called the C60 Redux and it begs the question, “Does the mix tape still exist in a digital world?”  Bone shares his thoughts: “I feel strangely melancholic that in this shift from analog to digital we somehow lost something; we traded connection for convenience.”  And he gloomily concludes: “Ultimately this experiment won’t change anything; technology marches on, teenagers in love today play out their courtship online in their Facebook pages, not browsing record stacks. But I feel much better for having done it.”

This particular experiment inspired a group at IDEO to make a real working model of the C60 Redux and their efforts are revealed in the video above.  Something was “somehow lost” in the technological shift from analog to digital, thought Bone.  That something is physicality, and so the designers marched on to create a working model with this question in mind: “What if we could touch our music again?”  Using Arduino Pro Mini boards and RFID tags the concept came to life.  The designers constructed a small box that takes design cues from a record player, and built inside are Arduino boards that can read RFID (or radio-frequency identification) cards. Embedded inside custom-made cards are two RFID tags, each tag representing a song.  When you place a card on top of the box, the circuitry inside the box instantly reads the RFID tag and plays the song stored on it.  Flip a card over to play Side B.  Place multiple cards on the surface to create a playlist (the cards are read in a clockwise order).

And just like that a mere concept born out of a need to bring back the physicality of music was made into a real product.  Beyond the final product, what’s important to glean from this story is the tale of technology and how it can bring exciting advances and at the same time disregard staples of the past.  In the move from vinyl to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s, the convenience of throwing a couple hundred songs on an iPod has managed to make most forget about the materiality of music and what that brought with it.  The days of collecting piles of vinyl and what Bone calls the “joy and love” of creating personal mix tapes are way behind us, but something like the C60 Redux might just have the power to bring it all back to our digital world.

[Via Engadget; IMissMyPencil]

A ball of water in the palm of your hand

Design, Images, photography, , , , ,

UK-based photographer Edward Horsford specializes in high speed photography and one day decided to work with water balloons.  His motivation?  He is interested in “capturing a moment rarely seen and almost never captured.”  He admits that “[his] camera is really the least important part of the shots.”  So he uses a custom, Arduino-based flash trigger to produce specific lighting arrangements required to capture the water balloon at the precise point of explosion.  The timing of the flash is key; the aforementioned trigger picks up the sound of the balloon popping and flashes at what it thinks to be the most opportune moment.  Horsford must be a patient man.  And what might be considered the most impressive feat here?  He manages to do it all without any assistance; from setting up the trigger, to holding and popping the balloon, to taking the picture.  Impressive stuff, huh?  Look in the gallery below to find a few more of these high speed water balloon shots, and head over to Horsford’s Flickr page to view the entire collection.

[Via Gizmodo; NPR; DYIPhotography; Flickr]

Spinning lights atop a vinyl record player groove along with the Tron theme

Design, DIY, Music, Technology, Video, , , , , ,

In this time-lapse stop motion video, one Kim Pimmel managed to control a series of lights spinning on top of a vinyl record player to the fast-paced electro beat of the new Tron: Legacy theme.  Pimmel explains:

The video is stop motion, so every frame is an individually shot photograph. Each photograph is a long exposure photo, with exposures reaching up to 20 seconds in some cases.  To control the lights, I used an Arduino controlled via bluetooth to drive a stepper motor. The stepper motor controls the movements of the lights remotely from Processing [computer software].  The light sources include cold cathode case lights, EL wire, lasers and more.

Daft Punk would be proud.

[Via Gizmodo; Vimeo]

Student creates music controller with Arduino & an accelerometer

Music, Technology, Video, , , , ,

Parsons student Ryan Raffa crafted a do-it-yourself music controller with an ADXL 335 accelerometer and an Arduino board that communicates serially with Max MSP.  In simpler terms he created a small device that has five embedded tracks and a sixth button that applies a delay on those tracks; pushing the buttons plays the various tracks and moving the device around slows down and speeds up the beat thanks to the built-in accelerometer.  (An accelerometer is the device installed in iPhones and other gadgets that allows users to swap from vertical to landscape views just by changing the orientation of the device.)  Check out Ryan’s final product in the video above.  I think it’s safe to say he received an “A” for his final class project.

[Via Engadget]

Glowy dress monitors pollution in the air

Design, environment, Fashion, Images, Technology, , , , , ,

Climate Dress.  Designed by Diffus.

The inclusion of an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor, a carbon dioxide detector, and LED lights make this dress, well, very unique.  Stitched together using conductive embroidery, the LEDs are connected to the CO2 detector and light up when the dress interacts with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Glowing patterns range from “slow pulses to rapid flashes” depending on how much CO2 is detected.  Diffus representatives: It generate awareness of environmental issues through an “aesthetic representation of environmental data.”  I’ll say.

[Via Engadget; ecouterre]