TravisDeyle.com

The first post of my new homepage. Welcome!

I got distracted today watching some of the videos from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design: Ideas Worth Spreading). So far, my favorite talk was by Saul Griffith (entitled "Hardware solutions to everyday problems"). I'm including the inline video below, though you can also find it on the TED website here.

It is always interesting to see "common" electronic components used in fun, novel ways. Often, these methods have been well-known for quite some time and may even be the premise behind dedicated, more expensive sensors. However, the methods have a tendency to become vogue every few years. The decision to use these "alternative" components can be boiled down to a few key factors: cost, space, novelty, and usually the most important, availability (it's a nice alternative when you don't have the dedicated sensor sitting on your desk). I'm going to discuss two examples -- using LEDs as touch sensors and diodes as temperature sensors.  Can you think of any others?

There was a very interesting post on Gizmodo the other day about "How to Make Glow-In-The-Dark Printer Ink." 

Lucky for me, I have at my disposal several 3D printing machines at Georgia Tech. There is a Dimension fusion deposition molding (FDM) machine as well as several stereolithography (SLA) machines. They are very handy, particularly for rapid prototyping.  However, there is a cadre of hardware hackers seeking to build an open-source FDM machine, dubbed the RepRap project.

The web developers out there will appreciate Yaplet. Basically, it uses javascript to add a chat room to any site on the internet! It works by opening a sidebar (or new window) that contains the chat window.

There was an article (via Digg) that discusses an estimated 1,000 industrial espionage "spies" from China operating in Canada... curious.

For a class of mine (specifically, a class on Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems, or MEMS), I'm doing a semester project on a "Thermo-Electric Generator (TEG) for Energy Scavenging." I'm most interested in Ubiquitous Computing applications for such a device, but I'm certain that there are many other possible application spaces. Anyway, this first article will address how they work and a sample application (expect a second follow-up to discuss some technical specifics such as manufacturing and capabilities).

I'd like to pose a question: "How can you know the location of a robot when you don't have GPS?" Obviously, absolute position would be extremely difficult. Even if you had the stars to navigate (like sailors), your resolution is not so good. Further, not all environments have stars visible (indoors, subterranean, etc). SLAM to the rescue...

Noise cancelling headphones aren't exactly a new technology; they were first developed/deployed in the 1980's by Dr. Bose of MIT (yes, the one that owns the audio company). The operation principle is really quite simple -- use constructive and destructive interference to basically turn all external noises into silence. This is the same thing that happens to all waves, whether electromagnetic, fluidic, or in this case acoustic. If you're really curious, you can learn more about it from HowStuffWorks.

So there is this company called Mattracks that makes cool tank tread wheels. Basically, they attach to the drive shaft where a 'normal' round wheel would be attached. The benefit is that the tank tread drive mechanism gives you much better traction and versatility, and thus the ability to traverse otherwise impossible terrain. Mattracks has some very cool videos on their website here.

OK, OK, I know what everyone is thinking... "What is this craziness? Intergalactic Love?" Well, let's just attribute it to a poor Japanese-English translation. It is actually an interesting movie. The title should have been left at just "Hinokio," which is a play on words from the old, classic film title "Pinocchio." This movie is about a Japanese boy who is unable to walk and thus uses a humanoid robot to experience life; everything the robot sees, hears, and feels, so does the boy. He uses telepresence to control the robot from his bedroom.

Yay! After talking about opening a website for several years, I've finally done it.