In this post we’ll build a DIY device to transform a Japanese Katana into a smart fitness device. Say what? Stay with me… the first part of this post will address the why for doing this, while the second part focuses on the how.
What if one could take a practice sword and retrofit it with sensors to track the quality of motion? And what if one could build a mobile application to analyze that data in realtime? While we’re seeing rapid advancements in AI — a Siri-like trainer is still some time away. And we’re even further away from replacing a human Sensei. However, since science fiction has a way of becoming science fact, it isn’t difficult for one to imagine a Jedi knight training sword, complete with holographic Sensei.
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
Neat! I think there’s some interesting opportunities there for wearables, and maybe motion capture as well, for those arts that don’t practice with weapons.
I think you’re spot on Matt, the motion data capture market is very broad. This project goes to show two components, hooked together along with a phone can do much of what Hollywood did with $100,000+ capture systems not long ago.
Neat! I think there’s some interesting opportunities there for wearables, and maybe motion capture as well, for those arts that don’t practice with weapons.
I think you’re spot on Matt, the motion data capture market is very broad. This project goes to show two components, hooked together along with a phone can do much of what Hollywood did with $100,000+ capture systems not long ago.