Boooo!
What do you do with this 'embedded electronics' thing? You scare cats. Fun random links and a few pictures of the SparkFun Pumpkin. Cause we're cool like that.
Ray from shipping: 'Hey Nate - I need the SparkFun flame... Big'.
Nate: Wait - why do you need the flame?
Ray: I'm making a pumpkin.
Nate: Oh... Ok. I'll email it to you.
Hah! Nice job Ray. A handful of red LEDs, bread board power supply, wall wart, and you've got a sweet looking pumpkin.
Roaming around the internet looking for good Arduino literature, I keep running across Tom Igoe's website. Tom is the head of Physical Computing at NYU/ITP. Tom has some fantastic beginner FAQs to embedded electronics, physical computing, and Arduino - which led me to:
A fantastic project to keep cats off counters. Click! You must see these videos.
Blender Defender! Hilarious. And a beautifully simple project, the creator uses motion detection to sense when a cat is in view. When a feline is detected, a few commands over X10 and the blender kicks on to scare the cat off the counter. What I really enjoy is that it's a great, quick hack. I would have spend way too much time with a PIR, ATmega168, and a custom PCB - where really, it doesn't (and shouldn't!) take that much effort to pull off a really cool project.
And finally for today, the Snap key-less entry system. The door is not really opened by snapping, rather by careful touch patterns. Arduino + servo + touch sensor = slick way to unlock a door. I wonder if a touch sensor exists that can tell a different, unique capacitance between people...
