Bocce Draw is a project using projection and computer vision to better the game play of bocce ball. Using a PS3 Eye camera the computer measures the distance of each bocce ball from the Pallino. Once the distance is determined we use a projector to display circular patterns onto the court. To indicate what ball is closest to the Pallino, the project circle pulses.

The RFID Beat Box is a instrument that allows a user to create and play music by placing RFID tags into wooden bowls. The tags, designed as small vinyl record discs, are labeled by color and each tag/disc activates a unique sound. The top of the instrument has four wooden bowls, each labelled by color to indicate a certain instrument/musical type (drums, guitar, bass and synth loops). The user can place the tags/discs into the bowls to layer and experiment with the different musical options. We also incorporated colored LEDs that blink to the music when a disc is placed into the each bowl.

Remember the time before MP3s when we actually had actual objects that we could touch and feel and throw onto a turn table, tape deck or cd player. IDEO recently decided to make an attempt at blending the then and now of listening and experiencing music. Out of this desire, they built the above machine. Basically, what you’re looking at is a box filled with specially-angled Arduino Pro Mini boards constantly searching for RFID tags on top, and a set of cards each with two RFID tags, with each tag representing one song. When you drop one on the turntable, it begins playing within a second, thanks to the Arduinos underneath, you can leave multiple cards on the table to create playlists. Sadly IDEO is not selling the device but it shows that there are many other possibilities to listening and experiencing the musical world around us. Check out the video below to see this sucker in action:

Source (Engadget via IDEO I miss my pencil)

The Copenhagen Wheel project is a concept project by the MIT Senseable City Lab. The basic idea behind it is to replace the back wheel of your bike with the Copenhagen Wheel that will generate power when you pedal and uses the power you generate when you don’t feel like pedaling. On top of that it also connects to the Internet, can sense and share road conditions, and even serves as the bike’s lock. See the video after the jump.

Source (Make Zine and MIT)

German design group Sonice Development GmbH built a large scale “inkjet printer” which they call facadeprinter. Its basically a simple robot that uses paintballs for ink to produce large-scale art pieces using walls and facades for a canvas. See a video of this beast at work after the jump.

Source (Make Zine and Facade Painter)

“CastOven is a future microwave oven, which plays a You Tube movie clip to fit into your cooking time. Watching movies, playing video games, and browsing web pages are fun, but all of them require certain amount of time of us to spare. For example, one would hesitate to purchase a new roll playing game, because it would take him some tens of hours to clear the game. We think differently. One should not make his activities adjusted to a length of contents, but the contents should make adjustment to it. Our effort around the concept of “Ubiquitous Society” was over. We have been taking a novel step along the idea of “how those products and services have users spent their time?” The next business market is placed at the core, where a time as a flow of user’s activities.”

Source (MAKE Magazine)

Filmmaker Cristóbal Vila produced this short animation, Nature By Numbers. It shows examples of how mathematical relationships such as the Fibonacci sequence, golden ratio, and the Delaunay triangulation can be found in our natural surroundings.

Source (MAKE Magazine)

With the 2010 U.S. Census underway, what follows is an interesting bit of history regarding a technological development that emerged as a result of the need to design a solution to speed up the tabulation process. But first a little background according to the introduction in the U.S. Census Office Manual for Field Operations:

“The U.S. Census is an official count of people living in the United States. The United States Constitution requires a census of population and housing be conducted every ten years. Because it happens every ten years, the U.S. Census is known as the decennial census. The first U.S. Census took place in 1790 and there has been a nationwide census every ten years since then. The 2010 Census will be the twenty-third census in our nation’s history.

“The primary reason for taking the census us to determine the number of seats each state is entitled to in the U.S. House of Representatives. For example, a heavily populated state like New York sends more members to the U.S. House of Representatives than a less populated state such as Delaware. However, U.S. Census results are also used by the federal government, local governments, and private industries for many of the following activities:

• Determining the distribution of federal and state funds
• Creating local districts for elections, schools, and utilities
• Determining where to locate new housing, businesses, and public institutions
• Examining the demographic characteristics of communities, cities, states, and our nation

“On Monday, August 2, 1790, slightly more than a year after George Washington became our first president, the United States began its first census. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson was responsible for the 1790 Census. U.S. marshals supervised assistants appointed to collect the data. The assistants had no printed lists to guide them, provided their own supplies, and recorded data as best they could.

“It took 18 months to complete the first count, which provided a final tally of roughly 3,900,000 people in the original thirteen states and the districts of Kentucky, Maine, Vermont, and the Southwest Territory (Tennessee). This number was smaller than expected. After discussion between President Washington and his cabinet secretaries, the count was accepted as the first population count for our nation.

“As our nation grew, so did our need for information to help plan for growth. The decennial census process proved to be the ideal source of that information. In 1810, questions about manufacturing were included. In later decades, questions about agriculture, mining, business, housing, and transportation were added to the census questionnaires.

“During the 1800s, the population of the United States exploded from both large numbers of people immigrating and increased births within the United States. Growth of cities and many people moving ‘out West’ added to the challenges of taking a decennial census. Along with the nation, the census itself was changing.

“The act authorizing the 1880 Census also replaced U.S. marshals with a specially appointed staff of enumerators and supervisors. Special Agents were hired to collect statistics on certain industries and other topics. Detailed data were collected, but tabulation slowed down the census process. Tabulation of the 1880 data was complete only months before the 1890 Census began.

“In 1889, Herman Hollerith, one of the Special Agents hired in 1881 to tally census figures, found a solution to improve the tabulation process by designing a mechanical tabulator. Stacks of punch cards containing the data were fed into tabulating machines. Hollerith’s system was ready just in time for the 1890 Census. It produced the results of the 1890 Census much faster. Hollerith’s system was a success. He later founded a company to market his invention. In 1924, the company was renamed International Business Machines (IBM).”

And the rest is history…

GGRP Sound, an audio engineering company out of Vancouver sent out a 45rpm record packaged in a corrugated cardboard sleeve that also works as a record player. All you need to do is follow the easy set up steps and use a pencil to manually spin the 45. These were sent out as a promotional piece to creative directors across North America to demonstrate GGRP’s sound engineering capabilities.

Source (Gizmodo)