An international conference on Ecological Safety, held earlier this month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, called attention to a dangerous sanitation issue by offering an inspiring and feasible solution.
The problem: international donors are still promoting pit latrines… but most families can’t afford to pay for safe emptying of the pits… the latrines can become dangerous as a result, often leaking and polluting puddles in nearby streets and gardens, leaking into streams or even leaching into groundwater. Contamination ruins an already-limited clean drinking water supply, and puts the local community, particularly children, at risk for bacterial disease.
A new and more sustainable sanitation system promises to change the game, if advocates can generate the resources and policy action necessary to support it. According to Sascha Gabizon, executive director of WCEF, dry or low-flush urine diverting toilets, combined with natural filtration ponds to purify grey water from sinks and showers, is a much safer sanitation system that can be implemented at a cost similar to that of the latrines.
On one hand, these all look pretty inefficient. On another, shouldn’t you have less wind, drivetrain, and surface resistance to overcome per person on a well-designed setup like this compared to single-person bicycles?
This robot kit has a terrific lumbering gait. The YETI Walking Robot Kit is from Arexx Engineering. He uses two servos for locomotion and runs on a programmable ATmega8 microcontroller. It seems like most of the distributors are European. Has anyone out there gotten a chance to play with one?
This Guitar Hero mod posted by Youtube user Egyokeo blew my mind. A MIDI drum kit and some custom software on a PC send button-press input via the Xbox Input Machine (XIM) hardware to an Xbox running Guitar Hero.
Since I injured my middle left finger playing Guitar Hero 2 way too much when it came out, I’ve been dying to get back to playing it. But my finger hasn’t healed. I was holding the neck too tightly on the X-plorer guitar controller and it hurts to bend it anymore. I’ve never had an injury playing the drums, so I thought “wouldn’t it be great to be able to play Guitar Hero on the drums?” So I thought about how that might be accomplished… researched, implemented, borrowed, and here I outline the finished product.
Here’s the whole chain of what’s going on:
Me banging on my drumKat MIDI drum pads
drumKat MIDI Out to MIDI/USB adapter to PC
PC running my own custom MIDI Hero software
MIDI Hero calls into XIM which sends input to the Xbox 360 console
To make the songs playable with two-sticked drum input, some of the pads simulate multiple button presses for the 3 note chords and an input buffer on the PC automatically holds all notes until just before sending another hit event. You could tweak the setup to use a MIDI keyboard or even a MIDI guitar.
There are a lot more details on Egyokeo’s site as well as the blog maintained by XIM creator OBsIV. Unfortunately, there are no instructions for actually playing like this. I’m pretty sure it involves secret ninja stuff.
In spite of all the smart, multifunctional and state-of-the-art controllers that are commercially available today, there is a continuous demand for custom physical interfaces and configurable controllers. When using development platforms such as Arduino a lot of people will end up with great applications and a breadboard full of components and wires.
This so called “physical interface prototype” isn’t exactly portable, nor suitable for use during a live performance, in a studio environment or as part of an interactive installation. Some people are great with electronics and software, but when it comes to constructing an enclosure they run into problems. Lack of supplies, suitable tools and DIY-skills are common reasons why many projects just end up in a “temporary” cardboard case or never even get past the breadboarding stage.
Erik writes:
The Pcb’s shown are ment to expand the arduino from inputs / outputs, in the form of a shield in a easy without having to breadboard. The ones not mentioned yet are a Arduino Relay Shield with a Arduino Relaycontrol Shield, the 32 digital-in Shield and a 32 digital out Shield.
Nothing especially that I have in mind. Off course I have some ideas what to do with them, which is use the shields in as inputs with the MachineCollective modules.
For a sneak-preview take a look at the physical-computing.nl, here you find still in a big beta-phase the website, where I will hopefully soon can put a some tests and store for these shields.
What projects have you created with Arduino? What is the best way to get started? Do you have ideas on improving physical interface issues with projects that you or the people around you have done? Post your ideas/solutions/frustrations in the comments and upload pictures and video to the Make Flickr pool.
Bre visits Dam Stuhltrager gallery in Brooklyn to check out an exhibition of breathing books created by artist Edith Kollath. Each book’s surreal movement is controlled via Lilypad Arduino, likely chosen for its thin easy-to-conceal profile which keeps the art looking properly book-like.
Unfortunately, the art’s clever design proved a heap of trouble for the artist during travel. Thankfully, the books were finally retrieved after a 3-month stay in legal limbo. Get more of the story @ NYCResistor.
There are only a few hours left to enter our CYBER MONDAY contest (and to also get 10% off our robot kits)… we were able to do up a quick code/sale for all our robot kits for today so have at it. It starts at 12:01 am PST 12/1/2008 and ends today at 11:59 pm PST. Use code CYBERM at checkout at the Maker Shed.
Pictured above, an old photo of when I was running 30 miles a week and spending a lot of time looking through robot dog eyes - it was CYBER MONDAY every.single.day (long story)….
Here is another DIY robot project. It’s a lot slower than the Cockroach bot I posted earlier, but it can potentially do a lot more. I really like the drink cap wheels. They will not provide a lot of traction, but at these speeds it isn’t an issue.
Now that the AVRonics board is in full swing it’s time to start stretching it’s legs. This is not the robot to do that but it’s a start. I threw this together in about an hour (after many months of thinking) and spent about 10 minutes writing the code to control it. No, no, I’m not just that good - it’s just that simple.
Blogsnapper at 10:12 am 
