Arduino

Spring cleaning or killing spree, you decide. Intel has been rather aggressively “retiring” some of its less profitable endeavors, most of them revolving around the Internet of Things and wearable devices. Although it hasn’t formally acknowledge letting go of its wearables division, Intel did put its low-power Curie chip to pasture. Naturally, that has meant that the Arduino 101 is also following suit, bringing a formal end to Intel’s dreams on small form factor computers and devices.

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If you want a wearable that you can walk into a store and buy there are plenty out there to choose from. If you want a wearable that is unique and geeky cool, you have to build it yourself. This is exactly what has transpired with this oddly cool Pixie wearable. Pixie is an Arduino-based NeoPixel watch.

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Roomba it ain't, but if you’re either pressed for cash or have a tinkerer’s itch, then you’d probably be more comfortable building your own robotic butler, er, vacuum cleaner. Electronics today has reached a point where it almost too easy to assemble something together in no time flat, whether it be an intruder alarm, face-recognizing security system, or, in this case, makeshift iRobot or Roomba. And really, all you need is a spare vacuum cleaner, the portable kind, an Arduino, a few off the shelf sensors, and a sense of adventure.

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Last year, the Raspberry Pi Foundation surprised the hobbyist world with its RPi Zero, the smallest incarnation of its popular single-board computer. However, that has nothing on this even smaller incarnation of an Arduino. OK, it's not exactly an Arduino and definitely has less muscle or use than the full thing, but one can't help but marvel at the compactness of this thing. Born from Johan Kanflo's mind, the AAduino, so named because of its size, can, almost, conveniently fit inside a 3x AA battery holder for maximum space footprint efficiency.

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A pair of Ph.D. candidates in Japan have developed a glove that lets wearers "feel" distant objects underwater, even without making physical contact. Dubbed "IrukaTact," the glove uses a combination of haptic feedback and sonar to detect items from a distance, and apply increasing pressure to the fingertips as the wearer moves closer. It seems inspiration for the device was drawn from dolphins and their use of echolocation, as the name IrukaTact is a combination of the words "tactile" and "iruka," the Japanese word for dolphin.

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First revealed almost a year ago at CES 2015, Intel's low-power Curie chip is finally becoming available on its first development board, the new Arduino 101. Up until now, Curie has mostly been used in things like wearables, along with the occasional odd product. But now that it's coming to the open-source Arduino platform, students and hobbyist makers can take advantage of its sensors and connectivity options.

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Now here's a Lego creation that's impressive! A humanoid robot with arms and legs is controlled with a wearable Lego exoskeleton. It should be obvious by now that this isn't an official upcoming kit from the Danish toy maker, but rather a DIY project from engineer Danny Benedettelli. The setup is powered by an Arduino hobbyist board, and the exosuit wearer is able to send commands from several feet away. When the suit's arms move, the robot's follow the same motion.

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A geek named Chris Gregg wanted to convert an old-school typewriter to a printer that could be controlled by his computer. To start the project he laid hands on a Smith Corona electric typewriter from the 60s to use for the project. His original goal was to use the computer to drive the key switches without actually having to touch the keys of the typewriter.

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MediaTek is dipping its toe in the market for makers and builders. The company recently showed off its newest offering at the Wearable World Congress. MediaTek put together the LinkIt One development kit, which is a reasonably priced ($79 USD) kit designed for entrepreneurs to make devices ready for the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables. The chip on the board is tiny, only about the size of a fingernail. Its diminutive size leaves space to integrate additional hardware, and its relatively powerful specs would make it a good fit for small devices, like smart coffee makers.

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If you're protecting treasured first edition comic collection with a combination lock, you may want to upgrade your security. traditional combo locks are about to be toast thanks to this new robot. The contraption is the creation of Samy Kamkar, the same hacker who brought us the pocket-sized KeySweeper, capable of sniffing keystrokes from wireless keyboards. With a little help from a 3D-printer and Arduino, Kamkar's device exploits a trick he discovered which allows anyone to crack a Masterlock in eight tries or less. The programmable motor is more efficient than any lock picker, opening the lock in seconds.

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Despite the prevalence of smartphones, few consoles and console games take advantage of this "second screen" available at our fingertips. Some games even have in-game phones that point to the fact, but don't always tie into the real world. While some games actually do use your mobile device as an extension of your game, GTA V isn't one of those. Well, at least not without this latest, still unpublished, hack. YouTube user " DIY Projects Planetleak" published a video showing how he controlled the game's in-game phone using, well, his iPhone.

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Following up on what it started last February, Microsoft is pushing through with the thrust to bring Windows 10 to even smaller and less powerful but more general purpose hardware. In short, it is targeting the development and hobby boards that hackers and makers have grown to love. As part of its attempt to remain relevant in the Internet of Things (IoT), it is starting an Insider Preview of what it calls Windows 10 IoT Core. Plus, it has just made sure that at least one edition of the OS is now labeled as "Arduino-certified".

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