creativity.enhance() && impart(Knowledge);
Workshop India is proud the announce the launch of WIND Arduino series of low cost open source development boards
Coming January 2010 a new revolution in low cost high performance embedded and robotics boards with full code and tutorials
Regards
Aditya Singh Baghel
CEO Workshop India
visit www.workshoppindia.com
ABOUT
'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.
We've evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us. When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five natural senses to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions and chose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can help us make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everything and which is increasingly all available online. Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Information is confined traditionally on paper or digitally on a screen. SixthSense bridges this gap, bringing intangible, digital information out into the tangible world, and allowing us to interact with this information via natural hand gestures. ‘SixthSense’ frees information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer.
The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.
The SixthSense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness, viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger. SixthSense also recognizes user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture. The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch.
The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.
PICTURES
. . . some more pictures are coming soon.
VIDEOS
. . . more videos are coming soon, too.
PUBLICATIONS
AWARDS
SixthSense wins 2009 INVENTION AWARD by Popular Science
TR35 2009 Young Inventor Under 35 Award by Technology Reviewthis is truly amazing
Regards
Aditya Singh Baghel
CEO workshop India
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).
The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.
Development: For information on the development of Arduino, see the Arduino project on Google Code. Changes to the software are discussed on the developers mailing list.
Elsewhere: You can find lots of pictures of Arduino projects and workshops in the Arduino tag on Flickr. Related links can be found on the Arduino tag on del.icio.us.
To get started, follow the instructions for your operating system: Windows, Mac OS X or Linux; or for your board: Arduino Nano, Arduino Mini, Arduino BT, LilyPad Arduino, XBee shield. If you're having trouble, check out the troubleshooting suggestions.
Examples of how to work with the Arduino language and common electronic components; further readings on the foundations; information on hacking and extending the Arduino hardware and software; external resources.
Reference for the Arduino language (see also the extended version); a collection of libraries for working with various types of hardware; a comparison with other prototyping platforms, and information about the components of the Arduino board.
Information about the Arduino hardware, including reference designs (EAGLE files).
General announcements and thoughts from the Arduino team can be found in our blog.
The multi-lingual forum is the place to go with questions of all kinds.
We're collecting Arduino knowledge, tutorials, and instructions in the playground wiki.
Regards
Aditya Singh Baghel
CEO Workshop India
We report about the iCub, a humanoid robot for research in embodied cognition. At 104 cm tall, the iCub has the size of a three and half year old child. It can crawl on all fours and sit up to manipulate objects. Its hands have been designed to support sophisticate manipulation skills. The iCub is distributed as Open Source following the GPL/FDL licenses.
The iCub has been developed by the RobotCub project, a collaborative effort funded by the European Commission under the sixth framework programme (FP6) by Unit E5: Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics. It has the two-fold goal of: i) creating an open hardware/software humanoid robotic platform for research in embodied cognition, and ii) advancing our understanding of natural and artificial cognitive systems by exploiting this platform in the study of the development of cognitive capabilities.
The RobotCub stance on cognition posits that manipulation plays a fundamental role in the development of cognitive capabilities. As many of these basic skills are not ready-made at birth, but developed during ontogenesis, RobotCub aims at testing and developing this paradigm through the creation of a child-like humanoid robot: the iCub. This “baby” robot will act in cognitive scenarios, performing tasks useful for learning while interacting with the environment and humans. The small (104cm tall), compact size (approximately 22kg and fitting within the volume of a child) and high number (53) of degrees of freedom combined with the Open Source approach distinguish RobotCub from other humanoid robotics projects developed worldwide.
We focus here on the description of the iCub, both in terms of hardware and software. In particular, we will briefly discuss the rationale of the hardware design, the modularity and reuse of software components, and the consequences of the Open Source distribution policy.
The hardware of iCub has been specifically optimized and designed somewhat holistically: modularity in this case had to be traded for functionality and overall size. Software, on the other hand, has been designed with modularity and component reuse in mind. Both the hardware and software of the iCub have been released under the GPL and FDL licenses.
Additional initiatives are aiming at promoting the iCub as the platform of choice for research in embodied cognition.
regards
B.VARUN REDDY,
CTO,
WORKSHOPINDIA.
Although i always suggest BASCOM for beginners who are interested in doing simple micro controller based projects, But then when it comes to some serious embedded applications BASCOM may not do the job as it has a lot of deficient functionality as it uses BASIC as its programming language hence keeping the user away from advanced structures advanced functions parameter passing and loads of other functions that c provides and BASIC does not. C programming of the micro controllers is agreeably more difficult than BASCOM but once you get a hang of it. It is very easy and useful for any one.
I recently came across this combination of the AVR butterfly and the Book by Joe Pardue and they are an awesome combination for learning the basics of C programming and The Butterfly.
Here is the book its a torrent download you will need a bit torrent client to download it
for practice and simulation use AVR studio which is even vista compatible now
hi
Note: I do not work for deccan robotics nor do i endorse all their products. This is an open review.
here is another board for those who are interested in autonomous robotics or any other embedded application especially using c language. This board is amazing for those who want to work with embedded c. The tutorial is comprehensive and self explanatory, its for all those self learned people out there who believe in learning every thing themselves and like to get their hands on the hardware as soon as possible and get it working. I went through the tutorial details and find it very comprehensive for a start. Another advantage of this kit is that it works on embedded c which gives us an amazing power and control over what is happening and what we want to do. Compared to bascom it gives us more control over files and streams as well as i/o related operations.
here is a pic of the board it is very compact and can be mounted on any bot with very little space needed and the option of a battery is included.
here are the specifications:
ECAVR is ATmega32 based development board. On board ISP programmer and various interfaces are made available.
LEDs, LCD, Temperature sensor, Light sensor, 4x4 keypad, IR receiver, Real Time Clock, EEPROM, switches, RS232 and buzzer are mounted on board.
Get "Audio Visual Tutorial" software Free along with this
"Audio Visual Tutorial" Software will teach you following:
Course Contents / Syllabus
Product Packing:
Product contents:
you may but the whole set from retailer website
although priced a little high its a must have ! !
regards
aditya singh baghel
CEO workshop india
A Servo is a small device that has an output shaft. This shaft can be positioned to specific angular positions by sending the servo a coded signal. As long as the coded signal exists on the input line, the servo will maintain the angular position of the shaft. As the coded signal changes, the angular position of the shaft changes. In practice, servos are used in radio controlled airplanes and also in position control surfaces like the elevators and rudders. They are also used in radio controlled cars, puppets, and of course,advanced smart robots like humanoids.
Servos are extremely useful in robotics. These motors are small, as you can see by the picture above,they have built in control circuitry, and are extremely powerful for their size. A standard servo such as the Futaba S-148 has 42 oz/inches of torque, which is pretty strong for its size. It also draws power proportional to the mechanical load. A lightly loaded servo, therefore, doesn't consume much energy. The guts of a servo motor are shown in the picture below. You can see the control circuitry, the motor, a set of gears, and the case. You can also see the 3 wires that connect to the outside world. One is for power (+5volts), ground, and the white wire is the signal control wire.
the above picture shows the disassembled servo.
So, how does a servo work? The servo motor has some control circuits and a potentiometer (a variable resistor, aka pot) that is connected to the output shaft. In the picture above, the pot can be seen on the right side of the circuit board. This pot allows the control circuitry to monitor the current angle of the servo motor. If the shaft is at the correct angle, then the motor shuts off. If the circuit finds that the angle is not correct, it will turn the motor the correct direction until the angle is correct. The output shaft of the servo is capable of travelling somewhere around 180 degrees. Usually, its somewhere in the 210 degree range, but it varies by manufacturer. A normal servo is used to control an angular motion of between 0 and 180 degrees. A normal servo is mechanically not capable of turning any farther due to a mechanical stop built on to the main output gear.
The amount of power applied to the motor is proportional to the distance it needs to travel. So, if the shaft needs to turn a large distance, the motor will run at full speed. If it needs to turn only a small amount, the motor will run at a slower speed. This is called proportional control.
How do you communicate the angle at which the servo should turn? The control wire is used to communicate the angle. The angle is determined by the duration of a pulse that is applied to the control wire. This is called Pulse Coded Modulation. The servo expects to see a pulse every 20 milliseconds (.02 seconds). The length of the pulse will determine how far the motor turns. A 1.5 millisecond pulse, for example, will make the motor turn to the 90 degree position (often called the neutral position). If the pulse is shorter than 1.5 ms, then the motor will turn the shaft to closer to 0 degrees. If the pulse is longer than 1.5ms, the shaft turns closer to 180 degrees.
As you can see in the picture, the duration of the pulse dictates the angle of the output shaft (shown as the green circle with the arrow). Note that the times here are illustrative, and the actual timings depend on the motor manufacturer. The principle, however, is the same.
with regards
varun reddy
