Category Archives: Toys

Firefly Robots

Some fireflies exhibit a remarkable behavior where their flashes can synchronize with one another. I am interested in seeing if I can reproduce this behavior in small tabletop robots. These robots may use lights and light sensors to reproduce the … Continue reading

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NFC v3 Reader with Arduino

Turns out there are playing cards available with NFC capability embedded in them. I’m helping a friend make an automated bridge table. The step I’m helping with in particular is reading the card inputs and pushing the information on to … Continue reading

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Raspberry Pi Cheatsheet

Follows is a list of tips for Raspberry Pi setup and use. Direct Ethernet Connect Setup * Turn on my Mac’s Internet Sharing for the Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter. The self-assigned IP on Thunderbolt Ethernet is fine. Use arp -n -i … Continue reading

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Three-Dimensional Aruco Boards

I am using Aruco tags to locate mobile robots relative to one another. I have mounted tags on the robots using cubes so that at least one tag will be visible from every side of the robot. In the picture … Continue reading

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OpenCV Charuco Camera-Calibration

OpenCV is an amazing tool that can provide accurate pose information in real-time, but first you have to provide it with a model of your camera. The opencv_interactive-calibraiton tool nominally provides that capability. Follows is a record of how I … Continue reading

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CSE Week Activity – LED Holiday Cards

This morning I had the opportunity to give a Computer Science Education Week presentation to a third grade class at Liberty Elementary School in Springfield, MA. Since the students already have learned some CS curriculum, I told them about how CS influenced my … Continue reading

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DIY Oculus VR Mockup

Today at work we got real excited about the Oculus VR Kickstarter. We argued about whether the resolution was sufficient or if it would look like taping a pair of gameboys to your face. Ending the argument required a “Virtual” … Continue reading

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Rat Plotter

Last year Jeri Ellsworth did a neat radar demo where she attached a radar sensor to a mouse and then scanned what was under a cloth by moving around the mouse and recording the radar response as she measured different … Continue reading

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T3 Solar RobotoKit

This weekend was my birthday and my girlfriends Mom sent me this neat robot kit.  For some reason I felt like midnight was a good time to start assembling it. The box says it is a T3 Transforming Robot from … Continue reading

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