Arduino-based farming

We have a bit of a water crisis here in California.  We have gotten a little bit of rain recently, but we are still hovering near the minimum rainfall that we've had in recorded history.  About 80% of our water goes to agriculture.  Unfortunately, that water is not used efficiently.  Most of it just soaks into the soil and is gone.  Hydroponic systems, on the other hand grow crops with recycled water.  In fact the Aeroponic system they use at Tribe Awesome uses as little as 2% as much water as traditional farming.  If we could convert large crops over to these systems it dramatically help reduce our water needs.

Another interesting part of hydroponic systems is the nutrients they use.  They can be managed to optimize for different parts of a plant's lifecycle.  They are also much more efficient because they have very little run-off - all the nutrients go to the plants.  One type of system, aquaponics, uses fish to generate the nutrients for the plants.  The entire system is closed.  The fish muck up the water and fill it with nutrients for the plants.  The plants then filter the water and clean it up for the fish.  The result is a recirculating system that is extremely efficient.

The guy in the video below has a lot of plans for starting to scale up some hydroponic systems.  He makes a compelling case and he looks to be making great progress, just using pieces and parts that anyone can get.  He uses Arduinos to sense and control the system.  The whole system connects to the net so he can monitor and control it over the web.  It is quite impressive.

Spring is coming up, so its time to make the plans for your hydroponic garden.

Learn more here: http://rik94566.wordpress.com/category/agponics-com/

Build your own aeroponic system here: http://tribeawesome.com/project/aeroponics/build-your-own-aeroponic-garden/

Maker Mission Control Center

I'm clearly a bad father because I didn't build a mission control panel for either of my children.  I only hope they can forgive me.  I don't know who this guy is, but he's definitely raising the bar for all the other dads on the planet.  This is a great piece of work.  Watch the video and enjoy.

You can read about the project at Make.

Draw your hand in 3D

The folks at Handmania have come up with a clever little trick that shows how easy it is to create a 3D drawing of your hand.  The process is quite clever and the result is pretty impressive.  It surprises me that a simple curved line can be so effective at creating a 3D illusion.  Go ahead.  Try it.  Amaze you're friends!

For all the details, see the instructions here.

Where have you been?

Hello dear readers. I know... I know... It's been a month.  Sorry.  I've been busy.  So where have you been, you ask?  I'm going to divert you from that question.  It brings up an interesting point.  What if you could see where people have been?  What if positions had history?  What if when you see someone sitting in a chair, you also saw where they came from before they came to that chair?  That would be pretty cool eh?  I suppose slugs leave a trail when they slide along, but I was hoping for something a little less slimy.  Thanks to the wonders of digital technology, we can create these trails.

Dennis Hiynsky, professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, has made a set of videos that are really cool.  He set up a stationary camera and recorded as birds flew around.  Then, in post processing, he was able to show the paths of the birds movements through the sky.  I think it is brilliant and beautiful myself.  I think we need to try this effect on everything that moves... So, where was I?  Check it out.

1 2014 starlings 00011 from Dennis Hlynsky on Vimeo.

swallows of essex from Dennis Hlynsky on Vimeo.

black vultures from Dennis Hlynsky on Vimeo.

This air-powered, life-size, Lego car is brilliant or insane or both

This air-powered, life-size, lego car is brilliant or insane or both.  First of all, just look at it!  It is made of more than 500,000 Lego pieces.  The entire engine is made of Legos, has 256 pistons and it runs on air pressure.  It can attain a top speed of 20 MPH.  Apparently some of the load bearing parts, tires and the drive train aren't made of Legos, so if you are making a pure Lego car, you don't need to worry about this project.  Still, the engine in particular is quite an achievement.  Well done Steve Sammartino and  Raul Oaida.  See the video to watch it move.


What other little bits of informations there are can be found at SuperAwesomeMicroProject.

Comparing the Renaissance to the maker culture/movement - please help Digital Diner

Hi Digital Diner Readers,

Widdakay is writing a research paper comparing/contrasting the Renaissance to the modern day maker culture/movement.  He can't interview people from the Renaissance, but he can question people now about the maker movement as it happens.  That is where you come in.  He has created a short questionnaire for makers and non-makers alike to help collect information about makers and the maker movement.  It only takes about 10 minutes to fill out and it would help him immensely if you would take a moment to answer the questions for him... and maybe even pass the questionnaire on to your friends.

Answer questionnaire here.

Thanks one and all.  Your opinion matters.

Ah yes, the food extruder is finally coming...

Ever since a few years ago when I saw a sugar-based 3D printer, I've wondered when we would have a 3D food printer.  Finally, a company called Natural Machines is taking the leap to build such a device (see the video above).  They can print interesting shapes in chocolate and pasta.  It is a sort of a step beyond the Play-doh fun factory for food.  It's still in early stages of development, so the food in the video doesn't look too appetizing at this point, but the concept is good.

I really think they should apply a little more food science.  Just look at what we have learned from sous vide and the interesting results when you have exacting control of temperature of your ingredients.  Since 3D printers have heated nozzles, don't you think we could do some really accurate cooking at the same time.  Extrude your runny egg mixture, but then cook it to just the right texture as it leaves the nozzle (click here to learn more about exact egg cooking temperatures).  Maybe we could even include some frickin' lasers to do some spot cooking.  The printer should be the oven as well as the extruder.  I think with the right set of technologies you could create beautiful and delicious culinary art.  I feel a Kickstarter campaign coming on...

The Instant Delivery Race

Amazon Prime has been an amazing thing for us.  It definitely changed our shopping habits by making it so easy to get online goods.  Amazon Prime's two day delivery is pretty amazing too.  It certainly is something that one gets used to pretty quickly.  Now, for a small fee, you can have your Amazon Prime packages delivered the next day.  Of course, all the competitors are getting into the act as well.  Google Shopping Express delivers goods the same day.   eBay Now promises delivery in about an hour.  This escalation has gotten ridiculous, to the point where Amazon has announced Amazon Prime Air.  We love the idea of using multi-rotor copters to do delivery, but it seems like there are a lot of practical issues to resolve before you put this into practice.  For instance, you are sending out a device with whirring blades into the public.  What could go wrong?  I would imagine that these multi-rotor copters will be expensive, so what is to stop someone from stealing it?  What if the weather turns bad while it is enroute?  There are quite a few difficult problems to solve.  This video shows Amazon's vision of how the system would work.

If this race escalates much more, things will really get out of hand.  One potential scenario is shown in this video.

This video is not serious, but it's harder than one might expect to tell it apart from the real one.

My advice?  Settle down everyone.  Patience is a virtue.

Soda, Pop or Coke? US dialects shown visually

Having grown up in the midwest, gone to school in the east and then settled in the west, I'm not quite sure how to say anything.  The video below, however, nicely illustrates some of the ways that language varies in different parts of the country.
Of course, the correct answer to all these questions is what would Walter Cronkite say?  Unfortunately, he is no longer around to ask.

They missed one of the interesting language issues here in California. Here in the bay are, if you need to drive from San Francisco to San Jose you are likely to take 101 south. If you live in LA and you want to get to San Diego, you take "the" 101 south. There is a point somewhere between Monterey and San Luis Obispo where people to the south refer to numbered roads with a "the" in front of it. To the north, you just refer to the number. Go figure.

The Surface Tension Dance - Spontaneous motion of dyed liquid droplets

I love it when science and art collide.  OK, this one caught me off guard.  In the video below, researchers Nate J Cira and Manu Prakash, from Stanford, show little drops of liquid dancing around spontaneously on a glass surface based on surface tension.  When sped up, these little buggers look like they are dancing around on the glass slide.  There is a peculiar imbalance between the long distance forces and short distance forces that make the motions quite complex.  Watch and enjoy.
This work is currently being presented at the American Physical Society's annual Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting.  More info on this work in particular at Physics Central.