Oblique and Obtuse ideas

Tuesday, 15 March 2022

Inverse Rail Road Tracks

Imagine standing in the middle of some rail road tracks. If you look to the horizon, the tracks will converge at a point. This is the law of perspective.

Now imagine the rail road tracks not converging -- rather the space between the rail road tracks seems to be the same, all the way towards the horizon.

What would those non-converging rail road tracks look like -- say from an aerial view?

ponzo illusion

bubble

collaspe

Monday, 26 October 2020

Sunday, 8 June 2014

Bluno

I wanna talk to my Arduino wirelessly. All smartphones have bluetooth, so I bought a BLUno off Amazon. It arrived quickly, straight outta China:

BLUno

Arduino Uno with BLE Bluetooth

That's when the problems began. BLE (Bluetooth 4.0) is very particular -- it is NOT backward compatible to "classic bluetooth."

Check that your phone supports Bluetooth 4.0 or BLE, for both hardware and software. BLE requires Android 4.3 or iOS 7

No one at Xerocraft had a new enough phone to speak BLE. My ASUS tablet would not update past Jelly Bean 4.2

There are cell phone apps that work wirelessly with the BLUno Accessory Shield:

BLUno specific apps

Android application for Bluno (APK) (Android 4.3 or later)
BLuno iOS on App Store (iOS 7.0 or later)

Only the latest iPhones supports BLE, nominally the 4S, 5C and 5S.

In addition to a BLE smart phone, we really needed a Bluno Accessory Shield to do much with the BLUno:

7 features in 1

The BLUno Accessory Shield

Against David's advice, I ordered the shield.

Once we get all the correct equipment, we should be able to repeat the video below:

BLUno app controlling shield

Ultimately I would like to use the BLUno to control a sculpture with one's cell phone.

USING THE BLUno

BLUno BASIC DEMO

This looks simple. After downloading the zip file, one needs to open the BLUNO_DEMO.ino sketch in the BLUno to test it -- "This Sketch only do one thing that replies the same message received from Serial port"

ACCESSORY SHIELD DEMO FOR BLUno

We need to install 3 libraries into the Arduino IDE -- "PlainProtocol.h" "U8glib.h" and "blunoAccessory.h"

Download the libraries (zip file)

Tutorial on installing libraries

It seems to me that we can upload a sketch to the BLUno without connecting it to the USB port. But I may be wrong.

The DFRobot Bluno combines an Arduino Uno with a Bluetooth 4.0 controller. You can program the board wirelessly, the same way you would with an Arduino Uno and USB.

Then there is the BLEduino -- except that it's not ready yet. This Kickstarter project has yet to deliver, even though 2 deadlines have passed.

Maybe it would be easier to just buy a "classic bluetooth" shield, to talk to all phones.

? DFRobot Wireless Communication Protocol Simple Version?

iBEACONS

It gets more interesting. Perhaps we can use this BLE, and therefore the BLUno, to work with iBeacons.

iBeacons are characterized as "wireless QR codes." As one moves through a room, objects can interact with his smart phone. Sounds a bit like Minority Report:

This is a little too scary

This sounds like Google Nearby.

Perhaps I can use the BLUno and iBeacons to make sculptures that interact with your cell phone. It seems that someone else has already thought about that.

As you approach a sculpture, you may see a video about its author playing on your tablet.

Monday, 12 May 2014

Arduinos

We are doing some Arduino classes at Xerocraft hackerspace. I would like to use an Arduino to make a "cell phone controlled sculpture," though I really don't know what I'm doing yet. However, I'm making this entry to collect all the links and other important information, as I make progress.

Arduino home page

Galileo Arudino

Arduino shields

Processing software
(did they do Man in the Dark with this?)

Leap Motion for Processing

Scratch software

Leap Motion Linux

The Shieldbot is a small car run by an Arduino. It is fun letting the Shieldbot run by itself at Xerocraft hackerspace. $69 at Seed online.

Russian refreshments delivered with the Shieldbot

Shieldbot explanation

Download the Shieldbot library

Unzip it and put Shieldbot file into the libraries file of Arduino IDE by the path: ..\arduino-1.0.1\libraries

Monday, 5 May 2014

Free 3D software

Online STL viewer -- Marco Antonini Wiki

Below are the 3D programs I found before Nov 2012, and posted on the Xerocraft forum:

The TinyUrl link to this list is -- tinyurl.com/free-3D-software

(* indicates that I haven't tried it yet)

3D Tin
online software

Wings3D

MeshMixer

Blender

OpenSCAD
3D CAD design software

123D
3D scanning and other 3D software from Autodesk

like:
123D Design

Meshlab
software to view and manipulate 3D objects

SketchUp*

SVG exporter * (Google Sketchup plugin)
for exporting 3D files to be cut on a board in a 2D laser cutter

Smooth Teddy
3D drawing software by Takeo Igrashi

Rhonda 3D*
3D drawing software

Shapeshop*
3D drawing program

K-3D*
3D modeling software

Art of Illusion*
3D modeling software

Vue Pioneer*
3D landscape making software

TopMod*
topological mesh modeling

K3DSurf*
mathmatical models

Scherk-Collins Sculpture Generator*

Sculptris
free 3D sculpture program from Zbrush

ViewSTL*
for viewing 3D files

netfabb Cloud
corrects the errors in STL files
before they are printed on a 3D printer

Repetier*
software for looking at how a file will 3D print

Reconstructme*
free 3D scanning software for the Kinect

Skanect*
free 3D scanning software for the Kinect

OpenSim*
multi-user 3D application server

My3DScanner*
3D scanning from photographs

APPS

Augment
Augmented reality app

Aurasma
Augmented reality app

STLview*
app for viewing 3D files