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Ben Heck tackles Android ADK, whips up car trip-simulating baby seat
We've been wondering what would happen if the infinitely resourceful Ben Heck got his hands on the powerful Android ADK. Thankfully, in the most recent episode of the accomplished modder's show, our curiosity is satiated. The crafty Wisconsinite tackles a reader request -- to recreate the soothing motion of a car ride and help put a three-month-old baby to sleep. Mr. Heck uses the accelerometer in his phone to record the bounce and sway from the backseat as he drives around. He then draws up some code that will feed that data to the Arduino-powered ADK and move a series of servos that will tilt and shake a child's car seat. Sadly, the completion of the project will have to wait till the next exciting episode, but by the end of the installment embedded after the break you do get to see a scale model. What are you waiting for? Click that little read more link for PR and video... you know you want to.
Maker Faire 2011, in pictures: Arduinos, Androids, and angry robots (video)
The rapture has come and gone, but the Maker Faire powers on. Despite warnings of a May 21st doomsday, folks came out in droves for the annual celebration of all things DIY, and we were there to bring you the best in homespun inventions. This year's Maker Faire was light on robots and big on corporate sponsorship. Among the giants supporting the little guys were Google, ASUS, and HP, but El Goog's presence extended beyond its dedicated tents. The new Android ADK was big with at-home tinkerers this year, spawning a number of little robots and at least one DIY alternative. Perhaps no other trend proved more pervasive than 3D printing, however -- every time we turned around there was another MakerBot or RapMan pumping out everything from statuettes of attendees to cutesy salt shakers. There were robotic building blocks, a Heineken-themed R2-D2, DIY drones, custom keyboards, and a ton of repurposed gadgets, but it was an arena of destructo-bots, tucked away in the farthest corner of the San Mateo County Event Center, that really blew us away. We came away sunburned and bedraggled, but lucky for you, we did all the dirty work so you don't have to. To see what made this year's Maker Faire, hop on past the break for a video of our favorite DIY finds. %Gallery-124165% Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
LifeFitness exercise bike interfaces with Nexus S, makes fitness marginally enjoyable (video)
LifeFitness may have taken one too many creative liberties with its Cyberbike Wii accessory, but it did a laudable job of redeeming itself at Google I/O this week. The outfit brought a USB-equipped exercise bike to the show floor, where an Open Accessory-enabled Nexus S promptly stole the show. We were shown a demo of the CardioQuest app interfacing with the cycle over the aforementioned protocol; the bike itself had a heretofore unreleased firmware update installed that allowed it to interact with the phone, and we're told that said update will be available free of charge to existing customers in the coming weeks. As was announced yesterday during the opening keynote, the Android Open Accessory API is currently only capable of handling communications over USB, but that didn't stop a clever game from keeping a booth representative mighty busy. The gist is pretty simple -- pedal harder to move the Android up, and relax your stride to see him float down. The goal is to avoid the surrounding walls, while also keeping your mind from focusing on the fact that you're actually burning calories. Mum's the word on whether or not this particular app will ever make it into the Android Market, but there's a video of the chaos waiting just after the break, regardless.
