Raspberry Pi has a New Camera

 The Raspberry Pi Foundation has declared last February that they will be implementing a new camera module for their minicomputer.

They will add more components and elements for their product once the launching of their camera becomes successful.

The Foundation will also give away ten pre-production camera modules to deserving enthusiast and designers. They will get to try it  before April’s release and check out the cameras compatibility to new and  existing projects that requires video they have created.So make sure to think thing useful and creative if you want to avail one.

“We want you to try to get the camera doing something imaginative,” said the Foundation in a blog post.

One of the reasons is to make sure the camera works well together with its software when its goes on sales in stores in April.So get ready with your proposal and contact them at iwantacamera@raspberrypi.org. Make sure to impress them with your creative ideas for a project.They will also need your mailing address once you win and entries should be received on or  before March 12.

Voice Control Garage Door using Raspberry Pi

What a convenience it would be if you can open up your garage door with your smart phone by voice command. A designer named Christopher has done just like that by linking his Android phone and his raspberry pi.

He goes further by installing fail safe proximity switch to determine if the door is already open or closed to prevent misfiring.He further added another protection for his design by  the installation of opto-isolators to protect the circuit from external electricity coming from lightning and short circuit.

For complete details of the design check it out here!

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Raspberry Pi Helps create Digital Beer Board Keg

GSM Arduino Going To The Cloud

GSM Arduino will now be available in the cloud. Cumulocity will be hosting Arduino with GSM module for mobile in the Embedded World Conference in Nuremberg. 

All those who are interested will just sign up for the free version but for those who cannot resist the upgrade version then a €2.50 monthly fee that will provide 400 MB of storage.

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/GSM-Arduino-calls-in-to-the-cloud-1810901.html

Automatically Lower the Volume During Loud Commercials with an Arduino

Ever notice how much louder commercials are than the actual program you're watching? Every time a break hits, it's like they're yelling at you about buying their product. Instructables usertechbitar shows us how to fix the problem with a little DIY project.

Basically, you place this little device next to your TV and it monitors the volume. When it detects your TV going over a preset threshold, it will send the "volume down" signal to your TV. You'll need an Arduino and some small miscellaneous electronics parts to make it happen, and if you're familiar with building on the Arduino (which we've talked about before), it shouldn't be too difficult. Check out the video above to see the loudness guard in action, or hit the link below for the full step-by-step instructions.

http://lifehacker.com/5984091/automatically-lower-the-volume-during-loud-commercials-with-an-arduino

Arduino-controlled pelvic-floor strength-tester, with light-up penis

Last September, Doctor Kristen Stubbs -- a roboticist who makes sex-gadgets for her Toymaker Project -- released a video (NSFW) demonstrating her prototype pelvic-floor strength-tester, called "The Hammer." The Hammer has a bulb that is internally inserted, containing a squeeze-sensor, and a penis-shaped, light-up readout that protrudes between the wearer's legs. The harder the wearer squeezes, the more the readout lights up.

http://boingboing.net/2013/02/13/arduino-controlled-pelvic-floo.html

Tongueduino: How Arduino and tongues can help the blind see

When one of the senses is lost, an extremely effective coping mechanism involves hijacking other senses to fill the same role. Usually, hearing and touch are used in place of sight, but an MIT researcher named Gershon Dublon is using the tongue as a way to convey spatial and directional data to the blind. Dublon’s own tongue has been the testbed up until recently, but now the project is progressing to the point where 12 subjects will be using this Arudino-based tool to navigate.

Dubbed “Tongueduino,” this small Arduino system uses a grid of electrodes attached to the tongue to express various forms of input. In the video below, whisker analogs are shown as one method of converting tactile feedback into the system. When attached to magnetic sensors, it could even use the magnetic field of the earth and objects around the subject to convey information about direction and obstacles.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/148657-tongueduino-how-arduino-and-tongues-can-help-the-blind-see

ArduSat – An Arduino based satellite

For a long time, the space exploration has been the domain of governments .. and not all governments, but only the strong governments. Now, Arduino is playing big and launching open source experiments .. in space !

http://www.openimpulse.com/blog/2013/02/ardusat-an-arduino-based-satellite/#more-1363

Parallella – The pocket supercomputer

Recently, I’ve noticed a very interesting hardware project: Parallella, a low cost (99$ only!) pocket supercomputer packing a lots of computation power: it includes a Zynq chip (which contains a dual core ARM processor and an FPGA) and it also includes an Epiphany multicore chip.

http://www.openimpulse.com/blog/2013/02/parallella-the-pocket-supercomputer/

Google gives back to education

Google Giving Fund, the charitable arm of Google will be donating with the assistance of Raspberry Pi Foundation. Google Executive chairman, Eric Schmidt and Pi inventor  Eben Upton were at  Chesterton Community College in Cambridge teaching the kids coding lessons when they announced that they will be giving  15000 Rasberry Pi Model Bs to students all over UK.

http://www.openimpulse.com/blog/2013/02/google-donates-through-raspberry-pi-foundation/

The first step towards the laptop you can fold-up

Scientists have used one of the simplest, ordinary materials to create the latest and flattest in electronics – paper.

Researchers at the University of Maryland in America have taken the first step towards green, flexible electronics by printing transparent electronics onto ‘nanopaper,’ created from wood pulp treated with enzymes and mechanically beaten.

They developed the transistor on the surface of the nanopaper by printing three different inks on it.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2274028/Researchers-print-electronics-PAPER.html#ixzz2KRWOxZka

Arduino and Raspberry Pi Performs Biometric and Medical Applications

The e-Health sensor Shield enables Arduino and Raspberry Pi designers  to conduct biometric and medical applications where body monitoring is required implementing nine unique sensors such as Pulse, Oxygen from the blood (SPO2), airflow (breathing), body temperature, electrocardiogram (ECG),glucometer, Galvanic skin response (GSR sweating), blood Pressure (sphygmomanometer) and patient movemnt (accelerometer).

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Hackers in China Attacked The Times for Last 4 Months

SAN FRANCISCO — For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees.

After surreptitiously tracking the intruders to study their movements and help erect better defenses to block them, The Times and computer security experts have expelled the attackers and kept them from breaking back in.

The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings.

Security experts hired by The Times to detect and block the computer attacks gathered digital evidence that Chinese hackers, using methods that some consultants have associated with the Chinese military in the past, breached The Times’s network. They broke into the e-mail accounts of its Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, who wrote the reports on Mr. Wen’s relatives, and Jim Yardley, The Times’s South Asia bureau chief in India, who previously worked as bureau chief in Beijing.

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Top tech trends for 2013

In 2012, we saw the tipping point for 3D television, tablets outgrowing the demand of laptops and the continued rise of the maker movement with Raspberry Pi, Beagleboard and Arduino giving more opportunity to experiment, explore and develop with electronics.

Most techies like me go straight from one holiday wish list to pencil in what would feature in the next one, as many announcements make big waves in the early part of the year at CES in Las Vegas and then the embedded industry's crown jewel, Embedded World.

So, here is the technology news and developments I am most looking forward to in 2013.

Here are the top List

Local Hacker Scout crew brings science and computer skills to kids

Forest Park metal artist and homeschooling mom, Elaine Luther, is no stranger to power tools. After all, she's got a 20-ton drill press and a blowtorch on her porch. But she's really excited about microprocessors.

"Basically an Arduino is this small circuit board doo-hickey that includes a computer chip and some places where you can connect things to it," she writes on a blog for parents of gifted children.

Even though Luther admits she doesn't have the technical vocabulary to explain computer programming and microprocessors, what she does have is organizing experience.

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Student Challenge | What Tech Tools Play the Biggest Role in Your Life?

Which technology tools — whether Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, text messaging or anything else — play the biggest role in your life, and in the lives of your friends?

How do you use these tools? What makes them especially relevant to you?

How do these services and apps shape your daily life and relationships — for better or worse?

Have they changed how you work, play, read, think or interact with others? How?

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$199 Gizmo Board is High Powered Raspberry Pi Alternative

GO, GIZMO, GO! Gizmosphere, a joint venture between AMD and Sage Electronic Engineering, has just announced its entry into the embeddable computer market with the Gizmo Board. At $199, it's a steep price to pay, especially considering that the most expensive version of the Raspberry Piis only $35. However, the Gizmo boasts more raw horsepower, SATA connectivity, uses the OpenCL API for GPU processing--all while retaining the kind of micro controller functionality that makes the Arduino popular. It does have one important thing in common with the Raspberry Pi though: both are sold out for the time being.

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2013-01-29-199-gizmo-board-is-high-powered-raspberry-pi-alternative

Arduino Movement Tracker

The main idea of this simple DIY Arduino project is to be able to determine the amount of time you spend inside and outside of your own premises. The device can be attached on your waist all day without obstructing your regular daily activity. This device will record your location history all day long, with a detailed report of the time spent indoors or outdoors. 

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Permaduino makes your Arduino projects permanent (video)

Arduinos are fun to tinker with, but there's one problem. Once you've built something cool, you pretty much have to tear it down to use your board for another project. Sure, you can always buy multiple Arduino boards or proto shields, but what if you want to turn your creation into something a bit more permanent and a lot more compact? Say hello to Permaduino, a small battery-powered Arduino prototype board that just launched on Indiegogo.

Adafruit Shrinks a Wearable Arduino Platform Down to One Inch

Don’t you hate it when you’re building the arc reactor for your Iron Man costume, but theArduino powered circuit board you’re using is just too big? Well friend, it sounds like you could use the Adafruit Gemma! It packs most of the wearable computing power you love about Adafruit’s larger Flora model into to a one-inch disc. Perfect for all your arc reactor needs. Sure, the Adafruit Gemma could probably be used for a lot of different projects, but if I had one, I’d totally use it to build an arc reactor.