WeeBots

Driveable Robots for Babies Who Need Them

This is a WeeBot. It's one of the very few times it's okay to combine robots with babies, because a WeeBot is basically a way of turning a real baby into an unstoppable fusion of biology and engineering. Yes, we're talking about cyborg babies. Run!

Babies, as you may have noticed if you own one, like to get into all sorts of mischief, and studies show that exploring and interacting with the world is important for cognitive development. Babies who can't move around as well may not develop at the same rate as babies who can, which is why researchers from Ithaca College in New York are working on a way to fuse babies with robots to give mobility to allbabies, even those with conditions that may delay independent mobility, like Down syndrome, spina bifida, or cerebral palsy.

The robots in question, called WeeBots, are Adept MobileRobots Pioneer P3-DX bases. On top of the bases are Nintendo Wii balance boards, which are rectangular platforms with load sensors at the corners. A commercial infant seat is placed on top of the balance board, and the robot can then be calibrated to move in whichever direction the baby leans. You might think that a six month old baby wouldn't necessarily have the facility to control a robot like this, but they catch on surprisingly quickly:

To test out the WeeBot, the researchers borrowed five infants, ranging in age from six months to nine months. Each infant was given five training sessions on the robot using a toy as bait, and by the end of those sessions, the babies were reliably able to control the WeeBot in goal-directed movement during periods of free play. All of the babies in the study were developing typically for their age; none of them had the ability to crawl, so the robots were their only means of transportation.

This was just a pilot study to make sure that the WeeBot worked, but recently published continuing research has also tried using WeeBots with infants with mobility disorders. It's turning out to be difficult for some babies to sit up enough to control the WeebBot by leaning, but in at least one case, a fifteen month old boy with cerebral palsy was able to learn to control a WeeBot, after which he started to develop crawling skills on his own.

Clearly, there's a lot of promising work going on here, and as the video shows, it's impressive how early these babies can be turned into robot drivers. Our hope is that eventually, the researchers will give WeeBots tank treads or jetpacks or something and see what these babies are really capable of.

sound energy

Sound is produced, the energy of sound waves as they travel through a particular medium. Sound waves cause vibrations of the pressure that lead to a certain degree of condensation and rarefaction in the media, through which the sound waves. Sound energy is also a form of mechanical energy, it is not contained in discrete particles and is not to cause a chemical change you, but is purely to pressure its vibrations that you want. Sound energy is used in general non-electric energy or for other human energy needs since the amount of energy that can be made from clay, is quite small.

Energy is the amount of work by a given power system, object, or anything else can be done in a position to perform work. The work is simply the ability to cause changes in defining a system that can include everything from a change in the position to a change in heat energy. The amount of work that can be performed by common every day sounds, is quite small, so that no sound is often thought of in terms of the energy it contains. Sound energy is there, however, change sound waves cause a vibration, even if such changes small.


Instead of measuring sound in typical units of energy such as joules, tend scientists and others measure it in terms of pressure and intensity with units such as Pascal and decibels. Sound measurements are, by their very nature, compared to other sounds that cause more or less pressure. Normally, the tone in regard to the way it is perceived to be of healthy human ears described. A sound that is produced from 100 Pascal pressure at an intensity of about 135 decibels, for example, commonly described as the pain threshold. There is enough pressure and intensity, which are often combined in the common term "loudness" to cause physical pain.

Sound energy is closely related to the ability of the human ear to perceive sound similar. The wide outer region of the ear is maximized in order to collect sound waves. Sound energy is amplified and passed through the outer ear, striking the eardrum, which transmits sound to the inner ear. Auditory nerve to fire the special vibrations of sound waves in the inner ear, which refer to such things as pitch and loudness of the sound. The ear is in an optimal way to interpret the energy in the form of sound vibrations set. 

Color pen scanner????

Jinsun Park is a South Korean designer that invented this tool. He was probably inspired by the eyedoppertool from Photoshop which allows you to pick the color of any object on the canvas and use it for drawing other objects on your PC. The Park’s invention does the same thing, but in the real world. At the end of this concept tool is a color sensor that scans a real world color. After the scanning process a micro-computer calculates the amounts of red, green and blue inks that are needed to recreate the scanned color. On the other end is a ball point where the mixed ink flows from. It is a bit strange that the pen uses the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color model which is typical for digital displays as PC monitors and TV. Normally for printings computers use the CMYK model (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-blacK). But aside of this, the ability to paint with color of the apple or the strawberry you just saw is quite interesting. 

Well, I’m not sure what is the practical value of this pen. But I’m not an artist, however, may be some painter or graphic designer will be able to give competent opinion. 

LAPTOP KITCHEN

Desktop (or would that be counter-top?) kitchens are so 2000s. Drawing design inspiration from that most familiar of everyday portable devices, this conceptual kitchen-to-go contains a four-tier induction cooking element, built-in cutting board, ingredient grater and, of course, a touchscreen interface and wireless connectivity.
A few button touches bring up favorite recipes or new cooking ideas and nutritional information on ingredients or menus. Bluetooth, wifi and camera included, of course (what device doesn’t come with those these days?).

It may yet be a bit of a daydream, though, to suppose that such a thing would really work – there are issues such as safety (including separation of the heating element), power requirements and, maybe most of all, cleaning that need to be contended with before this work by Dragan Trenchevski could become a reality. And, alas, food means weight and space, as do pots and pans, so the portability needs some additional thought as well.

How to interface RFID with AVR microcontroller (ATmega16)

Knowingly or unknowingly the RFID technology is used by us in our day to day life. The most familiar example is seen in MNCs, schools and offices for daily attendance or automatic door opening system. The RFID contains two parts, namely, tag and receiver modem. When an RFID tag comes in the range of receiver, the tag gets activated and transmits its unique identification code to the receiver module.

The output of the RFID receiver is the unique ID in either serial (RS232) or wiegand format. Most of the receivers are equipped with additional hardware to send the extracted code in the above format, which can then be used by digital signal processors. This article shows the interfacing of ATmega16 with RFID.

// Program to get the 12 byte string and display it on LCD by Polling method:

/*

The RFID unique code is been displayed on LCE

LCD DATA port----PORT B

ctrl port------PORT D

                rs-------PD0

                rw-------PD1

                en-------PD2

*/

#define F_CPU 12000000UL

#define USART_BAUDRATE 9600

#define BAUD_PRESCALE (((F_CPU / (USART_BAUDRATE * 16UL))) - 1)

#include<avr/io.h>

#include<util/delay.h>

#define LCD_DATA PORTA                          // LCD data port

#define ctrl PORTB

#define en PB2                 // enable signal

#define rw PB1                 // read/write signal

#define rs PB0                   // register select signal

void LCD_cmd(unsigned char cmd);

void init_LCD(void);

void LCD_write(unsigned char data);

void usart_init();

unsigned int usart_getch();

unsigned char i, card[12];

void getcard_id(void);

void LCD_display(void);

int main(void)

{

                DDRA=0xff;                        //LCD_DATA port as output port

                DDRB=0x07;                       //ctrl as out put

                init_LCD();                           //initialization of LCD

                delay_ms(50);                   // delay of 50 milliseconds

                usart_init();                        // initiailztion of USART

                LCD_write_string("Unique ID No.");        //Function to display string on LCD

                while(1)

                {

                                getcard_id();      // Function to get RFID card no. from serial port

                                LCD_cmd(0xC0);               // to go in second line and zeroth position on LCD

                                LCD_display();                   // a function to write RFID card no. on LCD

                }

                return 0;

}

void getcard_id(void)     //Function to get 12 byte ID no. from rfid card

{             

                for(i=0;i<12;i++)

                {

                                card[i]= usart_getch();  // receive card value byte by byte

                }

                return;

}

void LCD_display(void)  //Function for displaying ID no. on LCD

{

                for(i=0;i<12;i++)

                {

                                LCD_write(card[i]);         // display card value byte by byte

                }

                return;

}

void init_LCD(void)

{

                LCD_cmd(0x38);                               //initializtion of 16x2 LCD in 8bit mode

                _delay_ms(1);

                LCD_cmd(0x01);                               //clear LCD

                _delay_ms(1);

                LCD_cmd(0x0E);                               //cursor ON

                _delay_ms(1);

                LCD_cmd(0x80);                               // ---8 go to first line and --0 is for 0th position

                _delay_ms(1);

                return;

}

void LCD_cmd(unsigned char cmd)

{

                LCD_DATA=cmd;

                ctrl =(0<<rs)|(0<<rw)|(1<<en);

                _delay_ms(1);

                ctrl =(0<<rs)|(0<<rw)|(0<<en);

                _delay_ms(50);

                return;

}

void LCD_write(unsigned char data)

{

                LCD_DATA= data;

                ctrl = (1<<rs)|(0<<rw)|(1<<en);

                _delay_ms(1);

                ctrl = (1<<rs)|(0<<rw)|(0<<en);

                _delay_ms(50);                                               

                return ;

}

void usart_init()

{

                UCSRB |= (1 << RXEN) | (1 << TXEN);   // Turn on the transmission and reception circuitry

                UCSRC |= (1 << URSEL) | (1<<USBS) | (1 << UCSZ0) | (1 << UCSZ1);

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                // Use 8-bit character sizes

                UBRRL = BAUD_PRESCALE;          // Load lower 8-bits of the baud rate value..

                                                                                                                // into the low byte of the UBRR register

                UBRRH = (BAUD_PRESCALE >> 8); // Load upper 8-bits of the baud rate value..

                                                                                                                                  // into the high byte of the UBRR register

}

unsigned int usart_getch()

{

                while ((UCSRA & (1 << RXC)) == 0); // Do nothing until data have been received..

                                                                                   // and is ready to be read from UDR

                return(UDR); // return the byte

}

void LCD_write_string(unsigned char *str)           // take address value of the string in pointer *str

{

                int i=0;

                while(str[i]!='\0')                             // loop will go on till the NULL characters is soon in string

                {

                                LCD_write(str[i]);             // sending data on LCD byte by byte

                                i++;

                }

                return;

}

BIONIC EYE

Bionic eye 

 This mechanism allows some recovery of eyesight if the optic nerve is saved healthy. In most cases, this is a small camera attached to the eyeglasses. The camera takes a photo and sends it to an electronic module, hanging on the belt of the patient. The picture is black-and-white, with low resolution, i.e. perceive only rough outlines and there is no color vision. After processing of the electronic module picture is transmitted wirelessly to the antennas close to the eyeball. These antennas forward the signal to electrodes implanted into the retina. Another direction in this regard is the use of photovoltaic plate which converts light into electrons and delivers it to the brain via the optic nerve. At the moment this technology allows only making a difference between light and dark.

Cycle on the Recycled

Cycle on the Recycled: A $9 Cardboard Bike Set to Enter Production in Israel

The last time you purchased something made entirely from cardboard, chances are it was a box to pack up your belongings. While the sturdy material is perfect for moving your stuff, an inventor from Israel has figured out a way to make cardboard move you. Using nine dollars worth of materials, bicycle enthusiast Izhar Gafni has created a fully functioning, water-resistant bicycle, made, from seat to spokes, entirely of recycled cardboard. The technology makes the environmentalist's choice mode of transportation even a bit greener and easier on the wallet. 

The all cardboard bike is shockingly durable: it can carry riders who weigh up to 485 pounds. A layer of coating atop the cardboard shields the bike from the elements and gives the finished product the look and feel of lightweight plastic. While the cost to make the bicycle ranges from nine to twelve dollars, the manufacturer expects to sell the vehicle for sixty to ninety dollars depending on the optional addition of an electric motor.

“It's going to be a game-changer in the bike world,” says Giora Kariv, an Israeli artist and a longtime friend of Gafni's who made a documentary about the project. “Like Henry Ford who made the car available to anybody, this bike is going to be cheap and available to any child in the world, including children in Africa who walk dozens of miles to school everyday.”

According to Kariv's documentary, Gafni's cardboard bicycle was inspired by news that an inventor had succesfully built a cardboard canoe. Gafni's bike design was initially deemed "impossible" by three engineers, but over the course of three years, Gafni proved triumphant. He has since made four different prototypes and even created a training bike for youth using origami techniques to mold and strengthen the material.

Gafni's next steps involve establishing a company to produce and distribute his cardboard creation to the world market. He's currently working with investorz to have the product ready for mass-production and worldwide distribution by next year.

"Hover Bike"

Aerofex Corporation Shows Off Its Prototype "Hover Bike"

Flying cars and most other futuristic modes of transportation promised by science fiction have been a long time coming, but we do have a prototype "hover bike" now. Manhattan Beach, California-basedAerofex Corporation has been developing this vehicle for a while, but recent test-flight footage shows it in action.

Apparently this bike of the future, which uses two ducted fans, is controlled simply by the riders' natural sense of where to lean. It doesn't look like the world's most agile or stable mode of transportation, and it's obviously not as efficient or clean as the bike of the present, but it does look like fun. Now we just have to think up a use for it.

Intro

Hi friends the basic idea behind this page is for final Engineering students and for their Projects
so friends Feel free 2 Ask and Share your thoughts And Help our friends 2 do their projects in better way ...



By
ur friend Daniel