If you want to add a display to your Arduino project, the easiest solution will likely be an LCD or OLED screen. But though those are affordable and work really well, they may not provide the vibe you’re looking for. If you want a more vintage look, Vaclav Krejci has a great tutorial that will walk you through using old-school LED bubble displays with your Arduino.

Krejci’s video demonstrates how to use HPDL-1414 displays, which are what most people call “bubble” displays, because they have clear bubble-like lenses over each character’s array of LEDs. They were fairly popular in the late ‘70s and ‘80s on certain devices, like calculators. These specific bubble displays can show the full range of alphanumeric characters (uppercase only), plus a handful of punctuation marks and special symbols.

The HPDL-1414 displays Krejci used come on driver boards that set the characters based on serial input. In the video, Krejci first connects those directly to a PC via a serial-to-USB adapter board. That helps to illustrate the control method through manual byte transmission.

Then Krejci gets to the good stuff: connecting the HPDL-1414 bubble displays to an Arduino. He used an Arduino UNO Rev3, but the same setup should work with any Arduino board. As you may have guessed based on the PC demonstration, the Arduino controls the display via Serial.print() commands. The hex code for each character matches the standard ASCII table, which is pretty handy. That makes it possible to Serial.write() those hex codes and even Serial.write() the actual characters.

Don’t worry if that sounds a little intimidating, because Krejci has sample code that will let you easily turn any arbitrary array of characters into the serial output you need. Now you can use those awesome bubble displays in your own projects!

The post How to use vintage LED bubble displays with your Arduino appeared first on Arduino Blog.

The Banana Pi BPI-CanMV-K230D-Zero is a compact and low-power single-board computer built around the Kendryte K230D dual-core XuanTie C908 RISC-V chip with an integrated third-generation Knowledge Process Unit (KPU) for AI computation. It follows the form factor of the Raspberry Pi Zero or Raspberry Pi Zero 2W board and targets IoT and ML applications. The SBC comes with 128MB of LPDDR4 RAM and uses a microSD card slot for storage. Additional features of this board include dual MIPI-CSI camera inputs for 4K video, a 40-pin GPIO header for I2C, UART, SPI, PWM, and more. Wireless features include 2.4GHz WiFi, USB 2.0 with OTG, and microphone support. These features make this SBC suitable for applications such as AI tasks such as image, video, and audio processing. Banana Pi BPI-CanMV-K230D-Zero Specifications SoC – Kendryte K230D CPU CPU1 – 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 1.6GHz with RVV 1.0 support CPU2 – 64-bit RISC-V processor [...]

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We’re now ready to announce the winners of CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2024. We offered some of the review samples we tested (and some we did not test) in the last year, and for the fourth year running, RAKwireless also gave away two IoT development kits shipped directly to winners. This year’s prizes also included a RISC-V motherboard, a 3D depth camera, a few Arm development boards, two touchscreen displays, and an Alder Lake-N mini PC/router. All those products can be seen in the photo, minus some accessories. You’ll find more than seven devices because we organized the third Giveaway Week on CNX Software Thailand simultaneously with four prizes. We had seven winners on CNX Software: Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard – François-Denis, Canada Orbbec Femto mega 3D depth and 4K RGB camera  – Reifu, Japan RAKwireless Blues.ONE LoRaWAN, LTE-M, and NB-IoT devkit – OldCrow, Portugal Mixtile Core 3588E development kit [...]

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A new category of devices – the stretchables – may soon be upon us, as after writing about Murata stretchable PCBs for medical applications a few days ago, I’ve now come across LG’s latest stretchable display that can be extended from its original 12-inch size up to 18 inches. It’s the second stretchable display showcased by the Korean company, as the first prototype was unveiled in 2022 with an elongation rate of just 20%. The new display extends that to 50% and delivers a high resolution of 100ppi (pixels per inch) and full red, green, and blue (RGB) color (probably at its original size). LG Display further explains that their engineers have applied a number of new technologies “such as improving the properties of a special silicon material substrate used in contact lenses and developing a new wiring design structure to improve the panel’s stretchability and flexibility”. Durability was also [...]

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It’s already day 6 of CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2024, and the prize is the Elecrow 7-inch CrowVision touchscreen display designed for Raspberry Pi boards and other single board computers (SBC). Elecrow sent us a sample of the touchscreen display last year to review “whenever we have time”. But it turns out that finding time is tricky, so instead of getting it to waste, I decided to give it away to one lucky reader of CNX Software. Elecrow CrowVision 7-inch display specifications: Type – 7-inch IPS display Resolution – 1024×600 Multitouch – 5-point capacitive touchscreen Viewing angle – 178° Video Input – Mini HDMI connector USB – Micro USB port for touchscreen function Audio 3.5mm audio jack for headphones Speaker connector User input – Touchscreen and keypad interface for provided 5-key board Power Supply 12V/2A DC input via power barrel jack 5V DC output via USB Type-A port Dimensions – [...]

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Waveshare ESP32-P4-NANO is the first third-party ESP32-P4 RISC-V board we’ve seen and it follows the launch of the Espressif Systems’ ESP32-P4-Function-EV-Board devkit introduced this summer. While the ESP32-P4 is a general-purpose microcontroller, the ESP32-P4-NANO board still implements wireless connectivity through an ESP32-C6 WiFI 6 and Bluetooth LE 5.4 module and offers a range of interfaces such as an Ethernet RJ45 port with optional PoE, MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, a USB Type-A OTG port, and GPIO headers for expansion. ESP32-P4-NANO specifications: Microcontroller – ESP32-P4NRW32 MCU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU – H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory – 768 KB HP L2MEM, 32 KB LP SRAM, 8 KB TCM, 32MB PSRAM Storage – 128 KB HP ROM, 16 KB LP ROM Wireless module – [...]

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Raspberry Pi has launched the Touch Display 2, a 7-inch touchscreen RGB TFT display with 1280×720 designed to be connected to Raspberry Pi single board computers. It improves on the original Raspberry Pi Touch Display with a higher resolution (1280×720 vs 800×480) and a slimmer form factor thanks to the integration of the display driver PCB into the display enclosure itself. Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 specifications Display Type – 7-inch 24-bit RGB TFT display Resolution 1280 x 720 resolution Touch panel – 5-point multi-touch capacitive touch panel Active area – 155 x 88 mm Backlight type – LED B/L Surface treatment – anti-glare Host interface – MIPI CSI connector with ribbon cable compatible with all Raspberry Pi boards except the Raspberry Pi Zero line Power Supply – 5V DC via 2-wire, 3-pin connected inserted into the 40-pin GPIO header Dimensions – 189.32 x 120.24mm The back of the display [...]

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Way back in 2015, we launched the Raspberry Pi Touch Display, a 7″ 800×480-pixel LCD panel supporting multi-point capacitive touch. It remains one of our most popular accessories, finding a home in countless maker projects and embedded products. Today, we’re excited to announce Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2, at the same low price of $60, offering both a higher 720×1280-pixel resolution and a slimmer form factor.

Key features of Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 include:

• 7″ diagonal display
• 88mm × 155mm active area
• 720 (RGB) × 1280 pixels
• True multi-touch capacitive panel, supporting five-finger touch
• Fully supported by Raspberry Pi OS
• Powered from the host Raspberry Pi

Simple setup

Touch Display 2 is powered from your Raspberry Pi, and is compatible with all Raspberry Pi computers from Raspberry Pi 1B+ onwards, except for the Raspberry Pi Zero series which lack the necessary DSI port. It attaches securely to your Raspberry Pi with four screws, and ships with power and data cables compatible with both standard and mini FPC connector formats. Unlike its predecessor, Touch Display 2 integrates the display driver PCB into the display enclosure itself, delivering a much slimmer form factor.

Like its predecessor, Touch Display 2 is fully supported by Raspberry Pi OS, which provides drivers to support five-finger touch and an on-screen keyboard. This gives you full functionality without the need for a keyboard or mouse. While it is a native portrait-format 720×1280-pixel panel, Raspberry Pi OS supports screen rotation for users who would prefer to use it in landscape orientation.

Consistent with our commitment to long product availability lifetimes, the original Touch Display will remain in production for the foreseeable future, though it is no longer recommended for new designs. Touch Display 2 will remain in production until 2030 at the earliest, allowing our embedded and industrial customers to build it into their products and installations with confidence.

We’ve never gone nine years between refreshes of a significant accessory before. But we took the time to get this one just right, and are looking forward to seeing how you use Touch Display 2 in your projects and products over the next nine years and beyond.

The post Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 on sale now at $60 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Waveshare has recently launched the RP2350-LCD-1.28, a Raspberry Pi RP2350-based 1.28-inch round color display module with 240×240 pixel resolution and a 65K-color IPS panel. This board also features a rechargeable Lithium battery manager, a 6-axis IMU with a 3-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, multiple GPIO pins, and a USB Type-C connector for programming and power. Additionally, it supports USB 1.1 host/device support, temperature sensor, and 24 PWM channels, all configured for flexible I/O options. These features make this device useful for IoT, wearable tech, and embedded applications. The company also provides an optional CNC metal casing that provides durability and heat dissipation for portable or rugged applications. We have previously covered similar development boards with a round display such as the RP2040-powered 0.99″ rounded display, the ESP32-S3 LCD Driver Board, the SB-Components has launched Dual Roundy, and others, but it’s the first to feature the RP2350 microcontroller. RP2350-LCD-1.28 specification: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi [...]

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DFRobot’s 14-inch ultra-wide IPS display offers narrow bezels, 4K (3840 x 1100) resolution, 10-point capacitive touch, and is designed for mounting single board computers such as LattePanda Sigma and Raspberry Pi 5. It can also be connected to other computers with dual USB Type-C and mini HDMI video input interfaces. With a unique 3.5:1 bar-shaped aspect ratio, this display can present information in an intuitive format for countertop advertising screens, measurement equipment, and smart terminals. DFRobot’s “14-inch 4K IPS bar touch display” specifications Display 14-inch ultra-wide, narrow bezel IPS bar touch display with 4K (3840×1100) resolution Ten-point capacitive touch support, offering precise input Aspect ratio – 3.5:1 Pixel – 0.08964(H) × 0.08964(V) mm Viewable area – 344.2(H)×98.6(V) mm with 170° viewing angle and ≥6H surface hardness Color Gamut – 72% Brightness – 300 cd/m2 Contrast Ratio – 1200:1 Refresh rate – 60Hz Transmittance – Greater than equals to 86% Driver [...]

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MIT Media Lab researchers Cathy Mengying Fang, Patrick Chwalek, Quincy Kuang, and Pattie Maes have developed WatchThis, a groundbreaking wearable device that enables natural language interactions with real-world objects through simple pointing gestures. Cathy conceived the idea for WatchThis during a one-day hackathon in Shenzhen, organized as part of MIT Media Lab’s “Research at Scale” initiative. Organized by Cedric Honnet and hosted by Southern University of Science and Technology and Seeed Studio, the hackathon provided the perfect setting to prototype this innovative device using components from the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 suite. By integrating Vision-Language Models (VLMs) with a compact wrist-worn device, WatchThis allows users to ask questions about their surroundings in real-time, making contextual queries as intuitive as pointing and asking.

Credit: Cathy Fang

Hardwares

The WatchThis project utilizes the following hardware components:

• • Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 Sense (with camera expansion board)
  • Seeed Studio round display for XIAO
  • OV2640 camera with long ribbon cable
  • LiPo Battery
  • Custom 3D printed parts

How the Project Works

WatchThis is designed to seamlessly integrate natural, gesture-based interaction into daily life. The wearable device consists of a watch with a rotating, flip-up camera attached to the back of a display. When the user points at an object of interest, the camera captures the area, and the device processes contextual queries based on the user’s gesture.

The interaction begins when the user flips up the watch body to reveal the camera, which then captures the area where the finger points at. The watch’s display shows a live feed from the camera, allowing precise aiming. When the user touches the screen, the device captures the image and pauses the camera feed. The captured RGB image is then compressed into JPG format and converted to base64, after which an API request is made to query the image.

The device uses these API calls to interact with OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, which accepts both text and image inputs. This allows the user to ask questions such as “What is this?” or “Translate this,” and receive immediate responses. The text response is displayed on the screen, overlaid on the captured image. After the response is shown for 3 seconds, the screen returns to streaming the camera feed, ready for the next command.

The software driving WatchThis is written in Arduino-compatible C++ and runs directly on the device. It is optimized for quick and efficient performance, with an end-to-end response time of around 3 seconds. Instead of relying on voice recognition or text-to-speech—which can be error-prone and resource-intensive—the system uses direct text input for queries. Users can further personalize their interactions by modifying the default query prompt through an accompanying WebApp served on the device, allowing tailored actions such as identifying objects, translating text, or requesting instructions.

Applications

Imagine strolling through a city and pointing at a building to learn its history, or identifying an exotic plant in a botanical garden with a mere gesture.

The device goes beyond simple identification, offering practical applications like real-time translation of, for example, menu items, which is a game-changer for travelers and language learners alike.

The research team has discussed even more exciting potential applications:

• • A “Remember this” function could serve as a visual reminder system, potentially aiding those who need to take medication regularly.
  • For urban explorers, a “How do I get there” feature could provide intuitive, spatially-aware navigation by allowing users to point at distant landmarks.
  • A “Zoom in on that” capability could offer a closer look at far-off objects without disrupting the user’s activities.
  • Perhaps most intriguingly, a “Turn that off” function could allow users to control smart home devices with a combination of voice commands and gestures, seamlessly integrating with IoT ecosystems.

While some of these features are still in conceptual stages, they paint a picture of a future where our interactions with the world around us are more intuitive, informative, and effortless than ever before.

Build Your Own WatchThis

Interested in building your own WatchThis wearable? Explore the open-source hardware and software components on GitHub and start creating today! Check out their paper below for full details.

WatchThis Paper

End Note

Hey community, we’re curating a monthly newsletter centering around the beloved Seeed Studio XIAO. If you want to stay up-to-date with:

 Cool Projects from the Community to get inspiration and tutorials
 Product Updates: firmware update, new product spoiler
 Wiki Updates: new wikis + wiki contribution
 News: events, contests, and other community stuff

Please click the image below to subscribe now!

The post WatchThis: A Wearable Point-and-Ask Interface Powered by Vision-Language Models and XIAO ESP32S3 Sense appeared first on Latest Open Tech From Seeed.

GIGAIPC QBiX-ADNAN97-A1 industrial PC is a compact system, powered by the Intel Processor N97 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor. This industrial PC supports up to 16GB of DDR5 memory and features flexible storage options with an M.2 slot for SATA or NVMe drives. Additionally, the QBiX-ADNAN97-A1 supports dual independent displays via two HDMI ports, It also offers dual Gigabit Ethernet, multiple USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 ports, an M.2 E-Key for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth expansion, and a COM port for legacy device connectivity. Designed for reliable operation, this fanless system is ideal for various Industry 4.0 applications, including industrial automation, digital signage, and edge computing. QBiX-ADNAN97-A1 industrial PC specifications SoC – Intel Processor N97 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.6 GHz with 6MB Cache, Intel UHD Graphics; 12W TDP System Memory – Up to 16GB DDR5 4800 MHz via SODIMM slot Storage – M.2 2280 M-Key socket for NVMe or SATA storage Display 2x HDMI 2.0 [...]

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Waveshare has introduced the ESP32-C6-LCD-1.47 development board powered by an ESP32-C6 RISC-V microcontroller with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity and equipped with a 1.47-inch display with a 172×320 resolution. With a 4MB flash, an RGB LED, and a microSD card slot for extra storage, this board is suitable for projects that need a compact display, low power consumption, and wireless connectivity such as AIoT applications and human-machine interfaces (HMI). Earlier this month, we covered the ESP32-S3 USB dongle, another development board from Waveshare designed for HMI applications with the same 1.47-inch display with a 172×320 resolution, but a USB Type-A port instead of the USB-C port found in the model covered today. In the past, we’ve written about other ESP32-based development boards for HMI applications, including the LILYGO T-HMI, ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4.3B, and Waveshare’s ESP32-S3 LCD Driver Board supporting both square and round displays. Feel free to check them out if [...]

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Waveshare recently launched the 4-inch e-Paper HAT+(E), a E-Ink Spectra 6 full-color e-paper module designed to work with the Raspberry Pi using the HAT+ standard. This 600×400 pixel display includes E-Ink Spectra 6 technology and doesn’t have a backlight. The Spectra 6 allows for high contrast and color saturation whereas no backlight means the display consumes very low power. The device communicates using SPI and is compatible with various controller boards like Raspberry Pi and Arduino. These features make this device useful for places like supermarkets, unmanned stores, shelf levels, hospital wards, and more. Waveshare has launched various e-paper displays in the past including the EINK-DISP-103 E-paper HDMI Display, the 4.2″ and 7.5″  Waveshare NFC-powered e-Paper display, and most interestingly the 7-Color e-Paper Display. Feel free to check those out if you are looking for high-quality displays. Waveshare 4-inch spectra 6 color e-paper display specification Display – E-Ink Spectra 6 [...]

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M5Stack ATOMS3R and ATOMS3R Cam are two tiny devkits based on ESP32-S3-Pico system-in-package and a similar design but the first one features a 0.85-inch color color IPS display, while the other is equipped with a GC0308 VGA camera. Both modules measure just 24x24mm with a thickness of around 13mm, integrate BMM150 and BMI270 motion sensors, offer GPIO expansion through female headers and a grove connector, and feature an infrared transmitter and a USB Type-C port for power and programming. Those are the second devkits based on the ESP32-S3-Pico SiP after we covered the tiny OMGS3 module earlier this week. M5Stack ATOMS3R with display ATOMS3R specifications: SiP – Espressif ESP32-S3-PICO-1-N8R8 SoC ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 16 KB RTC SRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE + Mesh Memory – 8MB QSPI PSRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash Display – 0.85-inch color IPS screen [...]

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AAEON GENE-ASL6 is an Intel Atom x7000RE-series Amston Lake powered 3.5-inch single board computer (SBC) featuring three 2.5GbE RJ45 ports and three independent display outputs via HDMI, LVDS, and VGA. The GENE-ASL6 can be configured with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and supports a variety of storage options including SATA, mSATA, and M.2 NVMe SSD options. There is also an M.2 2230 E-Key slot for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and the other M.2 3052 B-Key slot can be used for storage or to connect 4G or 5G modules. Other than that, this board features a variety of connectivity options including USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, serial ports, GPIO, SMBus/I2C, optional audio header, and much more. AAEON GENE-ASL6 3.5-inch industrial SBC specification Amston Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x7213RE dual-core processor @ 2.0 to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD graphics; 9W TDP Intel Atom x7433RE [...]

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STMicro has just announced the availability of the STM32C071 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller part of the STM32C0 series with 128 KB of flash and 24 KB of RAM suitable for driving a small 320 x 240 display using an SPI interface and building affordable graphical user interfaces (GUI) for appliances. The microcontroller also adds a crystal-less USB FS device interface, additional SPI and I2C interfaces, and extra GPIOs (up to 61) all of which are 5V tolerant. For evaluation and quickly get started with firmware development, STMicro also offers the NUCLEO-C071RB development board and X-NUCLEO-GFX01M2 display expansion board. STM32C071 low-cost Cortex-M0+ MCU for GUI in appliances STM32C071 specifications: MCU Core -Arm 32-bit Cortex-M0+ CPU @ up to 48 MHz Memory – Up to 24KB SRAM with HW parity check Storage – Up to 128KB flash with protection and securable area Peripheral interfaces Up to 61x fast I/Os, all 5V tolerant 5-channel [...]

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