Every decade or two, humanity seems to develop a renewed interest in humanoid robots and their potential within our world. Because the practical applications are actually pretty limited (given the high cost), we inevitably begin to consider how those robots might function as entertainment. But Jon Hamilton did more than just wonder, he actually built a robotic performer called Syntaxx and it will definitely make you feel things.

It is hard to describe this robot without sounding like a Mad Libs game filled out by a cyberpunk-obsessed DJ. Hamilton designed it to give performances, primarily in the form of synthetic singing accompanied by electronic music. It looks like a crude Halloween mask given life by a misguided wizard sometime in the 1980s. It is pretty bonkers and you should probably watch the video of it in action to wrap your head around the concept.

Hamilton needed three different Arduino development boards to bring this robot to life. The first, an Arduino Giga R1 WiFi, oversees the robot’s operation and handles voice interaction, as well as audio playback. The second, an Arduino Mega 2560, moves the robot’s neck according to input from two microphones (one on the left, the other on the right). The third, an Arduino Uno R4 WiFi, controls the rest of the servo movement. 

The result is a robot that is both impressive and also pretty disconcerting. 

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Imagine playing Half-Life: Alyx and feeling the gun heat up in your hand as you take down The Combine. Or operating a robot through augmented reality and feeling coldness on your fingers when you get close to exceeding the robot’s limits. A prototype device called ThermoGrasp brings that thermal feedback to the mixed reality applications.

ThermoGrasp is a wearable thermal feedback system designed for virtual reality and augmented reality, created by Arshad Nasser and Khalad Hasan of the University of British Columbia. It consists of thermoelectric modules attached to the user’s fingers with Velcro straps. Those are capable of creating thermal sensations — both warm and cold — in response to what happens in the virtual world. Those sensations can relate to any condition or event that the developer chooses, whether for immersion or utility.

Nasser and Hasan built the prototype using an Arduino Mega 2560 board, which controls the thermoelectric modules through custom H-bridge drivers. Those thermoelectric modules are Peltier devices, which are normally associated with cooling. They can create a cooling feeling on the skin, but can also do the opposite and produce a warm feeling. The Arduino controls the drivers through pulse-width modulation (PWM), allowing for granular adjustment. The thermoelectric modules are capable of changing temperature at a rate of 3.5°C per second and so can produce a noticeable sensation within just a couple of seconds.

In testing, users found that cool sensations were easier to detect than warm sensations, but that both were useful and increased immersion.

Image credit: A. Nasser et al.

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For now-college student Joel Grayson, making something that combined his interests in mechanics, electronics, and programming while being simultaneously useful to those around him was a longtime goal. His recent Venderoo project is exactly that, as the creatively named vending machine was designed and built from the ground up to dispense snacks in his former high school to fellow classmates.

Constructing Venderoo started with a sketch that featured the dimensions, vending mechanism, and the electronics panel on the left. Then through a combination of a CNC router and a jigsaw, Grayson meticulously cut out each plywood panel and assembled them together along with clear acrylic sheets so students could observe the machine in-action. On the electronics side, an Arduino Mega 2560 is responsible for handling selections on the keypad, displaying commands/feedback to users via the character LCD, accepting money, and rotating the motors when it’s time to dispense.

When a student first approaches Venderoo, they are greeted by a message instructing them to select their snack of choice, after which the price will appear and ask for a combination of $1 or $5 bills, depending on the price. Once the balance has met the threshold, Venderoo will find the location of the snack and spin the appropriate motor thanks to powerful MOSFET drivers.

To see more about how Grayson’s Venderoo vending machine works, watch the video below!

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