Resident video tech Eric Beug demoed his Wireless Sound Objects @ ITP's Spring show this week -

Wireless Sound Objects are objects that either make sound or control the sound that other objects are making. They can interface with a computer, with other existing music hardware or be used as stand alone units. They can be used for performance, recording composition, improvisation, and education. Think: Modular Synthesizer without all the patch cords. Think: Live Electronic Music without getting the sense that a performer is just playing back an MP3 while checking her email.

The project is a multicolored LED staff designed for dance performance, shows or general play. It can independently create beautiful light patterns that react to movement, or can be coupled with a PC laptop for more complex reactions and for synchronization between multiple dancers/performers.

More information about fLux

Related:

More ITP Spring 2008 pictures

Adding a mobile interface to systems that traditionally required a user to be sitting at their desk will open up many new opportunities. The new touch screen interface will also change how we interact with those systems, creating all new ways to use technology.

As an example, traditional surveillance systems use a joystick or mouse to control camera positioning. With the iPhone, the user has the potential of a much more intuitive interface to drag the camera around and zoom in on things by pinching the picture.

via - tuaw - iPhone controlling surveillance equipment

The PORTA2030 from 2006 is a mobile data sensing storage transmission unit that consists of a wireless hard drive (the WL-HDD2.5), a 1 GB flashcard and an open source backend. The device functions as a portable data sensing storage transmission system that can stream images to function as a simple communications device. Interesting design but we wonder how different it is from what a typical cell phone can do these days.

PORTA2030

This HF transmitting loop antenna can be tuned from 14 MHz to 30 MHz and was made from a combination of copper pipes, PVC pipes, and some RG-58 coax cable. Check out the detailed how-to instructions at the link below.

Portable HF Transmitting Loop Antenna

Christmas has passed, and in the cold weeks since we have already become bored with the shiny new toys Santa left us under the tree. Our only choice is to hack them! This article describes our successful attack on a popular wifi finder, and will provide you with the ability to use the device in new and interesting ways. You are limited only by your own creativity!

How did they choose what to include? As Tom Nguyen, one of the organizers, put it in an email: "Well, they have a cool-factor that requires no explanation (you'll know it when you see it), they're radically new rather than improvements on existing products, and they represent an essential combination of design form and function." (By the way, that's him up above with Joe Wilcox's fun-to-ride Tilting Trike.)

Here are a few of the things that really stuck in my mind (and more in my Flickr set).

Brent Teal is a total maker--he built this Glide Cycle prototype in his garage after a friend of his wanted to continue jogging despite his bad knees. It's like a cross between an elliptical machine and a bicycle--the demo video is hypnotic. Elliptigo



I've fantasized about wireless chargers for years, so it was a thrill to see one in action. You buy WildCharge cases for your various devices, and then you lay them down on the charging pad. Voila! Maybe not the most efficient way to go, but it is cool.



Speaking of chargers, this one was also nice: the HY Mini, which allows you to charge up your cellphone with either a tiny solar cell or a mini fan. Jason Wang was manning the table when I stopped by, and he said he charges his cellphone as he drives to work by sticking the fan on his car.



On the non-commercial side of the spectrum was the Embrace Infant Thermoregulator, which replaces expensive incubators with a simple, portable $25 sleeping bag with a phase-change material insert.



And I totally loved MagnoGrip's awesome magnetic belt clips, tool pouches, carpenter belts, and other construction accessories. Suspenders are cool again!

Raul Aguaviva made this connection between his DS and printer to control its stepper motor. He updates the script over the DSs wireless connection. All it needs now is to be able to read PostScript, and you've got a wireless printer!

Paul Asadoorian and Larry Pesce, authors of Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking, wrote in with this excellent hack:

Over the past few months I've been contemplating a few projects for some WRTSL54GS routers with OpenWrt, however I really need these to have a high gain antenna on the WRTSL54GS. As you may recall, this model has a fixed antenna, with no option for adding one. I decided that I needed to fix that "design flaw".

Pretty nice; it lets you reuse antennas from some other Linksys gadgets.

Adding a removable Antenna to your WRTSL54GS

This hack shows how to modify an old CB radio to broadcast on the channels that fast food restaurants usually reserve for their drive-thru windows. Although we here at MAKE don't condone this particular use, it's still a valid way of modifying existing systems to create new opportunities for interaction on open frequencies.

Phone Losers of America [via]

Instructables user arcticpenguin hacked an RC car to make a vibrating dog collar for his deaf dog and shows us how to do the same for about five dollars. The hardest part may be training your old dog to the new trick! Via the Instructables Weekend Builder.

Ever wonder how many wireless networks you are entering during your morning commute? Sure there are commercial network detectors out there and your laptop will do the trick as well, but what's more fun than actually building your own device to discover all the networks around you?

Giving Yourself a Sixth Sense for Wireless Networks [via]

Keep an eye out for good salvagable parts, especially around spring cleaning time -

Several months ago I was walking home from the post office, nearing my place I saw it was "clean-up week", the curb dotted with various piles of junk people had put out to be disposed off by the council pickup. The pile outside my block of units had mostly busted furniture, but one item caught my eye, an Aluminium bicycle rim. I dug it out and took a closer look. The spokes and hub were all rust-pitted chromed steel, and physically it was for a child's bike, only around 580 mm in diameter, but the Aluminium itself looked to be in good shape. Antenna was the immediate thought, so I carried it back to the shack.

Regine at We Make Money Not Art has a great set of interviews up with artists using RFID. She writes:

I interviewed 5 artists (Paula Roush, Doria Fan, Joshua Klein, David Kousemaker and Meghan Trainor) as well as our favourite expert from Tokyo (Konomi Shin'ishi) about their experience with RFID technology. What comes below doesn't reflect my presentation which was focusing on the ethical and cultural implications of the technology. I used these interviews as background research and thought they might be useful mainly for the workshop participants but also for some readers

The words of these artists are inspiring and it's great to see what they're up to. Check it out!

This Power over Ethernet step-by-step hack by NYC Wireless member Terry Schmidt shows how to build a simple setup with minimal cost and easy to find components. Pretty simple way to ensure your roof mounted wireless router can get enough juice without running tons of cables through your house.

Power over Ethernet

Member Mister Biggs scored a $30 wireless camera/receiver combo (cheap enough to put into harm's way) and integrated it into into his first stab at a live-video-transmitting rocket. His description -

Estes Canadian Arrow upgraded to accept E class engines, 1-inch fin extensions to increase stability, Kevlar shock cords for two rip-stop nylon 18" paracutes...one for the body tube, and one of for the nosecone camera assembly.
Nosecone Kevlar cord is attached to the tip of the cone, to allow for downward-facing video during decent.

Live Video Transmitting Rocket on Flickr

Related:

CVS camera video from a rocket...

In the Maker store:

K450 PVC Rocket Engine Design & Construction

LEGO-touch is an application for designing LEGO creations on your iPhone or iPod Touch. From the website:

View, post, build, or edit other LEGO maniacs projects. Create your own LEGO characters in pals, post your LEGO self to represent in share. Play and download different LEGO games or challenge anyone to a build-off! Personalize your bricks with color-slider and more...

The community aspect of this software seems pretty interesting to me; collaborative designs, perhaps! - Link.

For this bot I needed another axis on a joystick. I have a Logitech game pad that was ideal for this. The left thumb pad drives the motion servos, and the right thumbstick moves the turret. 2 buttons are used to control the servo that opertates the light, one for on, the other for off.

The ExploraBot - Link

Although there have been a lot of projects that have used the 2.4 GHz signal to snoop on wireless cameras (such as Life a User's Manual and the Radical Software Group's "X-10-1", Ben Gaulon's (aka. Recyclism) "2.4GHz Project" is a nicely designed way of surveilling surveillance cameras. Check out more pics at the link below.

2.4 Ghz - [via], Link

My colleagues and I in the Arts, Media and Engineering program at Arizona State University are working on a wireless tangible interface object for collaboration, called the Sensor Squid. It's basically an Arduino-controlled, Bluetooth communicating 6-foot plush cephalopod used to control a Max/MSP game about community-generated media. You can download the code, parts list, and schematic. - Link & more.

Above photo used with permission by Ryan Spicer.

Related:

Adopt a Squid - Link.

I find that sometimes my home wireless network drops out unexpectedly. Here's some pretty cool DIY instructions on building a 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer to search for the right channels to put your home wireless network on so hopefully this won't happen.

DIY 2.4 GHZ Spectrum Anaylzer - [via], Link

NOVEL as well as serviceable, the beer-keg radio described on these pages will make a useful addition to the furnishings in your game room. It can be used either as an end table or as a refreshment stand, and, since it is an entirely self-contained unit, operated by dry batteries, it can be carried onto a porch or even into the yard when warm summer days and evenings make this desirable. If you build this five-tube set carefully, it will give excellent reception from stations 1,000 miles or more away.

The unusual cabinet that houses the chassis, speaker, and batteries of the powerful superheterodyne circuit, is nothing more than an inexpensive ten to fifteen-gallon wine barrel, which can be purchased from any mail-order house. Making the barrel resemble a beer keg requires simple, inexpensive treatment which will be described later...

WMWifiRouter is a new utility that you can run on your WiFi-capable WM6 device to turn it into a GPRS-uplinked WiFi router. When activated, it will set up your WiFi link in ad-hoc mode and start a DHCP server. Your laptop will see a new network called WMWifiRouter, and connecting to it will funnel all of your network traffic through your phone and its GPRS connection.

It used to be that you had to use a separate laptop connected to your phone to do the routing and network address translation side of things. This hack will allow you connect 1 or more WiFi laptops anywhere where you can get a cell connection, and you can do it without additional hardware.  All you need is your phone.

Why isn't this available as part of the base WM6 operating system?

More:

• WMWifiRouter - Link
• WMWifiRouter forum discussion at xda-developers.com - Link

This Wifi camera by artists/researchers Usman Haque, Bengt Sjölén and Adam Somlai-Fischer attempts to capture the electromagnetic view of 2.4GHz signals passing through any open (or closed) spaces such as coffee houses, offices, homes, and other open urban spaces. Pretty interesting images captured, we just wonder how much data, if any, can be stolen from a snapshot.

Wifi Camera - Link

Related:

DIY Hardware keylogger - Link.