James and I stopped by last week to check out the what members were doing at Microcontroller Mondays! We talked to several people working on cool projects. Pictures below you can see someone knitting. You might wonder, as we did, what that has to do with microcontrollers. They are actually working on a piece of installation art where the piece of knit will be controlled by the microcontroller.
Ever wanted to see a robot play a 100 foot long harpsichord sting? Well now you can, thanks to HacDC members Alberto Gaitán and Elliot Williams’ new installation, Carrier, at Artisphere in Rosslyn, VA.
The sound produced by the piece changes depending on the how many people are in the area thanks to a PIR sensor that influences the robot’s servo responsible for “playing” the string. To keep it running mantainence free for the duration of the exhibit, the whole unit is trickle charged over its own drive cable. The robot and many parts of the drive system were printed on one of the HacDC’s 3D printers. This includes most of the pizo sensor that converts vibrations in the string into Carrier’s bassy drone, with the help of a microcontroller and base amp. Wanna see some pictures? Check em out HERE! But its way better in person and its only going to be up for a month, so get yourself to Artisphere!
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