How to Make Wings and Become a Happy Bird #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #Arduino #gaming
Everyone dreams of flying, but does everyone dream of flying through New York City? Students at University of Southern California (USC) decided to embark on this flight project for Tactical Media, a class which empowers users to explore software and hardware for solutions. Named HappyBird, not only does it have the humor of a “Junior Birdman” outfit, but it allows the wearer to control their flight through movement. Looking to have a co-pilot? Just have two people each take a wing! The ruffled paper wings have tilt sensors connected to Arduino, allowing for a responsive experience while flying through a sim of NYC. There is definitely some glam equipment here including the matrix of flat screens and industrial fan. However, it does create an immersive environment.
Although the project is amazing, what is most interesting is the last line of the video, which is a “thanks” to John and Pete @Oblong. Remember all those gesture controlled goodies in Minority Report? Well, we have Oblong to thank for that. The company seems to do seminars with USC, and although it is not obvious what the connection is for our HappyBird team, there is an inspirational link since this is the perfect example of a UI that considers real world space. Check out John Underkoffler’s TED talk from 2010 to learn more about gesture based UIs.
I’m sending a big congrats to the hardware loving geeks at USC— Elisa Alfonso, Grant Lee, Thomas Watson and Kayla Paredes. I’m hoping Marvel Studios includes you for the future of Ironman gaming! For the rest of you, if you have a desire to create your own responsive interface, you should check out our learning guide for our 9 Degrees of Freedom Breakout. You get an accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope in one package; so start planning the movements you would like to use for controlling your device. Send us a video of your finished project and we’ll make you famous.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Diving into the Raspberry Pi RP2350, Python Survey Results and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!