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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