Wow, this Augmented Reality technique looks like it works very well!

Via: Procrastineering

“Video results for an Augmented Reality tracking system. A computer tracks a camera and works out a map of the environment in realtime, and this can be used to overlay virtual graphics. Presented at the ISMAR 2007 conference.”

If you need to measure household AC voltage with your grounded scope this Differential Probe Project might work well for you.

Most of our workplaces are built using wood, metal and plastic. Adding some plants can go a long way to make the space a bit more comfortable. Have a look at the Bio Computer over at Total Geekdom. In this design the computer is used to help heat the soil to promote germination.

 ”I started wanting to use the heat from a computer as a way to warm the soil and help with germination/growth. I’m about as far from a botanist as it comes, I did some reading online and became pretty interested in the effects of soil temperature on germination/growth. I read different studies and papers from various universities. It was not too long into that process that I became hooked on the idea of using computer heat as a way to control the soil temperature of some sort of living plant life. “

Like so many people these days David Prutchi has a space communications array in his back yard. His modification of his FTA dish allows it to be used to receive Ku-band transmissions from geosynchronous FTA satellites as known-Az/El beacons.

“The Fortec Star 120 dish is small enough to be handled by a Yaesu G5500 Az/El rotor, yet provides 21.7dB gain in the L-band, and 27.7 dB gain in the S-band.  In addition, it provides enough gain for the Ku LNBF that good FTA satellite reception is achieved despite the polarization mismatch that results from Az/El aiming without a dedicated geosynchronous horizon-to-horizon motor.”

This US Military Experimental Flying Platform from 1955 is like a flying Segway. I wonder how long it will be before we have a modern day version of this. With technology that is becoming common place because of devices like the AR Drone I think the time is close since the stabilization technology would be quite trivial these days.

George Graves built this Constant Current Dummy Load Project based on this blog post over at the EEVBlog. It was built from a single sided board which was designed using ExpressPCB. That software is very nice to draft something up fast and it allows for an easy screen grab to etch what you see quickly.

Thanks for sending this in Jim.

“The only change I really made was running the opamp at 8 volts (7808) for a bit more range. It seems happy at 1 amp. Two amps and things start to really heat up.”

The prize this week is a non contact AC test pen. This pen can be used to test if AC voltage is present in a wire without needing to touch the bare conductor. This contest will run for one week (May 19 – 25, 2012). Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item above and what it can be used for.

Please do not give the answer in the comments.

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with “Name the Thing Contest” as the subject, and the message body consisting of:

• The name of the item in the above picture
• An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

Below is a picture of the prize.

Jacques Sperwer from Jacques Productions in the Netherlands shows us how he is building his Heavylift Hexacopter. Have a look at the video footage of the windmill below to get an idea of what these copters can do. This build is using a Wookong control system which looks to have all the bells and whistles. 

“Wookong Multi-Rotor stabilization controller is a complete flight system for all multi-rotor platforms for commercial and industrial AP applications. Unlike others, WooKong allows the use of regular ESC commonly used in RC helicopter without any wiring modification; Heli mode setup providing a seamless transition for current Ace One AP professionals. WK-M utilizes high quality components precisely calibrated with temperature compensation in all gyros and sensors, industry renounce flight algorithm in autopilot and UAV. IMU damping system is rated for gas engine best in the class.”

If you are in the Bay Area you better be checking out the Maker Faire this weekend. It is running May 19th and 20th. The Light Cycle above from Frog is sure to be a big crowd draw! This device is loosely based on the light bikes from Tron, the two players are back to back riding one their own light cycle and has a dedicated view, this is a great spectator project since there is a center screen which shows the aerial view of the playing field. The bike is based on a Schwinn bike and was hand welded by the crew. The electronics are Arduino based and are networked together to allow sharing of game sensor data.

If you are into modded consoles have a look at this WiiCube that Hugo Dorison build and sent in.

“It is a heavily modded gamecube, trimmed to fit in a much smaller case than the original, with controls and a screen. It also is equiped with a wiikey fusion, a chip normally made for the wii, that has been adapted. Enabling the portable to play games off of SD cards, and remove the disk drive which takes a lot of space.  As for the case, I built it from scratch using Vaccum forming on sheets of plastic and implementing various pieces of official Nintendo gamecube controllers.”