As seen here, mixing colors in real life is simple enough to understand, if difficult to perfect. With red, green and blue, any color in the rainbow can be produced, and the same can be done virtually using these digital RGB components. To help make color theory easier to grasp, Justin Daneman and Tore Knudsen developed a tangible interface that employs an Arduino to detect the fill levels of three cylinders, which represent red, green, and blue.

The intensity of each color is increased by pouring more water into the corresponding container, and decreased by removing it with a syringe. In one mode, users can explore how RGB colors create and affect a digital image on a computer screen, which in this case is Leonid Afremov’s painting “Misty Mood.” A second Color Challenge mode places a random color onscreen—or even in another glass—and participants try to match it by correctly proportioning the three liquid containers. (more…)

Most people support their school or favorite sports team by buying a shirt or tuning into games. Jacob Thompson, however, took things one step further and created his own Arduino-powered, backlit Clemson Tiger Paw.

Thompson’s “WallPaw,” as he calls it, uses an Arduino Uno to receive signals from an infrared remote and to pick up sounds with a small microphone. This information is passed on to an Arduino Mega, which controls a five-meter-long strip of WS2812 LEDs to provide lighting effects. (more…)

You may be familiar with “Pop-A-Shot” at arcades and amusement parks, which allows you to shoot baskets at a hoop for fun and prizes. Maker Cory Guynn, apparently unsatisfied with not having one of these at home, decided to duplicate the game with the “Pop o Shop.”

In this version, an ultrasonic sensor in the hoop tells an Arduino Nano when a shot has been registered, while two 7-segment displays inside of a LEGO scoreboard show the current count, time remaining, and high score. There is also an RGB LED that turns green after every made basket and changes color with a new top score. (more…)

Apparently unsatisfied with existing video game input devices, game designer Rob Santos created his own using, what else, fidget spinners. His system combines a spinner and five buttons on a pair of controllers to interface with Flock Off, an arcade game loosely based on Flappy Bird.

To register spinner input, a magnet is embedded on each lobe, triggering a Hall effect sensor three times per revolution when spun. An Arduino in each control box reads these signals, then sends this information, along with button inputs, to the game via USB accessible through a serial port. (more…)

What’s better than a laser? How about two rapidly rotating lasers, attached to servo motors and controlled by an Arduino Mega? That’s exactly what Jon Bumstead made with his “Interactive Laser Sheet Generator.”

In addition to controlling the lasers, his device can sense hand motion on top of it using an array of 12 ultrasonic sensors, and can even coordinate music through a built-in MIDI output.

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**To the members of the Arduino community interested in social innovation and tech for the greater good, this is a call for your help.**

Almost a year ago I was awarded with an Ashoka Fellowship, which got me to join a group of people working with projects all over the world having to do with social change through entrepreneurship. Issues covered by the Ashoka fellows range from gender equality, passing by collaborative economy, democratic access to all sorts of material resources, and ending with education using technology.

I have always been engaged in different social initiatives in my life: helped creating two Scout groups, joined several student associations (became president of one), played in a band (sorry we’re not on Spotify), taught martial arts to kids with visual impairments… and helped create the largest community dedicated to open hardware in the history of technology (so far).

During the last 10+ years I have been focused in building the Arduino platform, but also in reaching out to other communities, including arts, design, and more recently, education. Therefore, the Ashoka Fellowship feels like the perfect fit to encourage me to continue to be engaged with the development of our platform by making it more accessible to others. (more…)

Instructables author Daniel Quintana loves mountain biking, but after having to interrupt a ride to continuously check the time, he did what any normal teenager would do in this situation: he created his own Google Glass-like headset from scratch.

His DIY AR device, called “Uware,” takes the form of a 3D-printed enclosure with a tiny 0.49″ OLED screen stuffed inside, along with an HC-06 Bluetooth module, an APDS-9960 gesture sensor, a 3.7V battery, and of course, a tiny Arduino Pro Mini for control. (more…)

When you hear the words “Arduino alarm clock,” likely you think of something that uses a real-time clock (RTC) module to wake one up in a creative way, perhaps with light patterns or pleasant sounds. Though creative, the Duvet Eating Alarm Clock is not pleasant, literally ripping the covers off of your bed for a very “rude awakening.”

This project, the brainchild of YouTuber “1up Living,” uses a modified mechanical alarm clock to signal an Arduino Uno to start the duvet stealing machine. A powerful winch turns a custom-made drum that progressively wraps the bed cover around it, leaving no option but to get up and get dressed! (more…)

We will be hosting a three-day master class in our Turin office, September 29th to October 1st, designed for students, hackers, and engineers ages 18 to 28 with a deep interest in microcontrollers, IoT, and open source development.

Led by Martino Facchin, senior developer at Arduino, the class will focus on three main topics:

Teamwork and Open Source

• GitHub and GitHub Flow
• Hands-on collaborative projects on GitHub

Microcontrollers

• Review of framework for MCU development
• Introduction to Arduino core architecture
• Arduino ecosystem tools
• C++ and Stream
• Understanding the difference between Arduino and other frameworks
• Hands-on project with AVR, ARM, ARC32

Internet of Things

• The future of IoT
• Security, networks, protocols
• Low-power
• Hands-on “Chinese whispers” project involving multiple protocols, e.g. infrared, WiFi, BLE, Sigfox, LoRA, and Zigbee.

The event is open to a maximum of 25 selected participants. The cost (150 EUR) will cover all of the necessary materials, lunches, and social activities (including a breakfast with Massimo Banzi and aperitivo with the Arduino team).

Interested? You can start by applying here (deadline: September 10th). All confirmed participants will receive an email on September 12th with a link to buy their seat at the workshop (deadline: September 17th) via the Arduino online store. For more information, feel free to email us at events@arduino.cc.

UPDATE: The application deadline has been extended to September 15th! 

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Digital cameras have revolutionized the ways that we can record and share our lives. Action cameras, such as the GoPro and other similar models, have taken things one step further, allowing use in rugged environments. If you want to capture nature, however, you may want your camera to start recording automatically.

In order to add this ability, YouTuber “ItMightBeWorse” hooked up an ultrasonic sensor to his CA Kenai CA2001 camera using an Arduino Uno along with a transistor to act like the normal start/stop button. The output is soldered directly to the button leads, and he also tapped into the battery terminals to give himself more power supply options. (more…)